Luka Dončić has officially reached a level of basketball achievement in the 2025-26 season that few have, especially in the Los Angeles Lakers’ franchise history.
In the Lakers’ last eight games, the Slovenian sensation delivered several outstanding performances, leading the team to a perfect 8-0 record. Dončić averaged historic stats in this eight-game series that kept fans on the edge of their seats.
Stephen A. Smith on Luka Dončić’s Historic Lakers Run
For a team like the Lakers, which has hosted icons like Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, seeing a player like Dončić dominate statistically over an eight-game stretch is nothing short of a miracle.
Dončić averaged 40.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game on 50.2% shooting from the field and 42.2% from the 3-point line. He isn’t just leading the Lakers’ offensive charge; he’s also rewriting the franchise record books in real time.
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For Stephen A. Smith, the Lakers have seen high-powered offensive outbursts before, but the combination of elite playmaking and rebounding alongside a 40-point average separates Dončić from every legend that came before him.
“This dude is doing stuff that no other Laker has ever done.”
—@stephenasmith came ready with the Luka Doncic stats 📈 pic.twitter.com/CLpE4fBm93
— First Take (@FirstTake) March 20, 2026
“This dude is doing stuff that no other Laker has ever done,” Smith exclaimed on “First Take’s” latest episode. He emphasized that while the franchise is built on the shoulders of some of the best players the league has ever seen, the 8-0 winning streak is a statistical unicorn.
“With Luka’s 40.9 points, 7.4 assists, and 8.9 rebounds per game in this 8-game winning streak, no other Laker has that. Ever matched that in an 8-game span in a single season in franchise history.”
To put this into perspective, even during Kobe Bryant’s historic 2005-06 season, where he averaged 35.4 points per game, his all-around production with 45.0% field shooting and 34.7% from deep didn’t hit these triple-threat heights.
In this 2025-26 season, Dončić is currently shooting 47.7% from the field and 37.0% from deep, all while logging 35.8 minutes per night.
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His most recent 60-point masterpiece against the Miami Heat came with two records. First, he surpassed James Harden’s 2019 58-point mark to set a record for the most points ever scored by an opponent at Kaseya Center.
Second, he set the Lakers’ single-season record for threes with 232, surpassing D’Angelo Russell’s 226 made 3-pointers. By pairing his scoring prowess with 8.4 assists (third in the NBA) and leading the league in total points at 1,940, Dončić has become the definitive engine of the third-seeded 45-25 Lakers.
