The Bounce：卢卡·东契奇如何施展得分魔法

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Today at 7 p.m. ET, “The Athletic LIVE” is going to chat with you and talk about the biggest stories of the NBA day. We’ll figure out if Luka or Wemby has been the best player in the NBA to start the season. Keep this page tabbed and tune in when we go live.

Luka levels up

How is Lakers star working his magic?

When you start your season doing something only Wilt Chamberlain has done on the offensive end, you’re doing something right. Luka Dončić is definitely doing something right.

In his first nine games of the season, he averaged just over 40 points per game, mimicking Wilt’s scoring prowess to start a season. He modestly scored just 64 points over games 10 and 11, bringing his scoring average down to 38.6 points per game.

Still: pretty impressive! Even more impressive might be the efficiency we’re seeing from Luka in his shot-making for the 11-2 Los Angeles Lakers.

He has shooting splits of 48.9/40.8/86.6, which is good for a ridiculous 66.3 percent true shooting. Only 10 times in NBA history has a player averaged at least 35 points per game for an entire season (Wilt did it five times). The highest true shooting percentage in one of those seasons is 61.6 percent, when James Harden averaged 36.1 points in 2018-19.

Luka’s efficiency would blow that out of the water. But how sustainable is any of this? And why has he been so good? Let’s break down some of the high marks:

3-point accuracy: His 40.8 percent would be far higher than his career-best 38.2 percent. He’s just a 35.4 percent 3-point shooter for his career and was 36.7 percent over his last two seasons.
Expected field goal percentage: Based on the NBA’s metric for this, his shot selection should yield 38.2 percent from the field. He’s 10.7 percentage points above that. That’s tied with Steph Curry for the biggest gap between expected and actual field goal percentage.
Expected FG percentage last season: Luka’s was 39.6 percent, and he made 47.6 percent of his shots. A difference of 8 percentage points.

OK, so what does all of this mean? He’s shooting better than he’s supposed to. Unfortunately for expected field goal percentage, the NBA’s stats site only tracks back to last season. It’s a new feature. Luka’s 3-point and field goal percentages have been lower than what you expect over his career because of shot selection. He loves creating difficult shots to bury in your eye.

It’s no secret that Luka loves the step-back 3-point shot. This is the second-most productive season with that shot in his career. He shot just over six per game in the season he took the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals, making 40.5 percent of them. He also made 39.6 percent of them in the 2021-22 season, but he took just over four per game.

This year, he’s taking about 5.6 of them per game and is knocking down 38.7 percent. He’s shown in the past that this isn’t a complete aberration, but he doesn’t typically sustain that:

Another reason for Luka’s hot start might also be real estate. LeBron James is gone, and while LeBron didn’t take a ton of 3-point shots last season, he typically took them from the left wing. That’s Luka’s sweet spot, especially with the step-back.

As you can see, Luka’s heat map for shooting this season is bright in that spot. Brighter than it was a year ago:

History shows that Luka won’t keep this going. It’s extremely difficult and historically improbable to score at this rate with this level of efficiency. It’s never been done. He’s taking the most 3-pointers he’s ever attempted and his lowest volume of shots around the rim.

However, there seems to be something different about Luka, in general, this season. Maybe that Luka magic will keep wowing us.

The last 24

🤕 Hurts, don’t it? There’s a great randomizer in the NBA, John Hollinger says. It’s injuries.

🏀 Behind the curtain. Our Jon Krawczynski got two days of inside access with Timberwolves coach Chris Finch. He documented Finch’s meticulous ways.

👊 Ejection. Marcus Smart and Charles Bassey get into it during last night’s Rockets-Warriors game. Smart was ejected for throwing a punch.

👟 The Question. Allen Iverson’s iconic Reebok shoe has its 30th anniversary. They’re being rereleased.

Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.

About last night

Spurs stay hot; Steph gets hurt

The Golden State Warriors entered last night’s game with the Houston Rockets riding an eight-game win streak. It was the second-longest streak in the NBA, but the Rockets (9-3) ended it with a 115-108 win.

The loss isn’t troubling, especially when you factor in that Steph Curry only played six minutes. The reason he only played six minutes is what should absolutely worry Warriors fans.

He left the game early with some kind of abdominal soreness. Steve Kerr said that Curry tweaked something, and Golden State (8-4) will have to see the results of testing to know what’s going on.

Even though Yaxel Lendeborg put up 25 points, Kevin Durant led a balanced Rockets attack with 20 points. Houston was 7-of-26 from 3-point range in the first three quarters, but turned it on with 6-of-10 shooting from deep in the fourth. Alperen Şengün had 19 points, 13 boards and nine dimes.

Harden's vintage performance, Blazers sweep Thunder and more from Wednesday

Other games from last night!

Cavs 115, Knicks 107: The Cavs thought about blowing a double-digit second-half lead to the Knicks for old times’ sake, but 32 points from James Harden secured the victory. Tyrese Proctor (15) and Meleek Thomas (14) had big games off the bench for Cleveland (6-6).

Blazers 118, Thunder 108: The Blazers (8-3) have beaten the Thunder (8-4) in PDX on back-to-back nights. Deni Avdija had 28 points, and Sidy Cissoko had 19 to overcome 31 points from SGA and 20-11-6 from Isaiah Hartenstein.

Nuggets 123, Grizzlies 118: Jamal Murray’s 30 points and Nikola Jokić’s 27-11-8 line powered Denver (6-4). Memphis is 1-4 since its 6-0 start.

Spurs 124, Bulls 119: Victor Wembanyama’s 32 points, nine rebounds and five blocks were enough to erase an early deficit to the Bulls and give the Spurs (10-2) their 10th straight win. The Bulls (1-9) have now lost eight straight.

Pacers 114, Wizards 101: Pascal Siakam’s 28 points were enough for the Pacers to earn their first home victory (1-5) this season and send the Wizards (4-8) to their fifth straight loss.

Celtics 98, Raptors 93: It wasn’t pretty, but a 23-13 fourth quarter fueled the Celtics (10-2) on a back-to-back. Jayson Tatum had 24 points. Paul George didn’t play.

Lakers 123, Bucks 112: Austin Reaves had 18 points in 25 minutes, but he left with a heel injury. Luckily, the Lakers still have Luka, who had 32 points, five boards and five assists. The Bucks (1-11) have lost eight straight, while the Lakers have won seven in a row.

Nets 145, Pelicans 111: The Pelicans (4-8) had lost four straight and then won four straight and now find themselves on another four-game losing streak. Egor Demin and Michael Porter Jr. each had 22 points to lead eight players in double figures for Brooklyn (3-8).

Magic 123, Jazz 108: Utah achieved the first 10-game losing streak in the NBA this season. Franz Wagner had 38 points, and Desmond Bane had 25. The Jazz (1-11) are in trouble. Let me explain …

Kind of blue

Latest injury may doom Jazz

About 4 1/2 years ago, the Jazz decided to hit the reset on their roster. After six years of playoff appearances mostly fueled by Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, they sent both All-Stars out of town in trades to acquire assets and start over. The next four seasons saw them tank more dramatically and aggressively with each passing year. In the process, they traded for Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. and drafted guys like Keyonte George, Ace Bailey and Darryn Peterson.

This year, they are supposed to be ready to compete and make the playoffs once again. Instead, they are a complete disaster. As you saw above, they lost their 10th straight game last night. That loss came on the same day they received even more bad injury news.

Jackson tore his right MCL on Oct. 27 and will be re-evaluated in mid-December. Jusuf Nurkić hasn’t played this season because of a right toe injury. Now Markkanen is out at least four weeks with two non-displaced fractures in his shooting hand.

The Jazz are now just a band of sad trombones. At 1-11, they have the second-worst offense in basketball. They were already horrible offensively with Markkanen on the floor (103.4 offensive rating would also be 29th). Without him, their offense puts up a 101.7 offensive rating. That would be the worst in the NBA.

Utah goes from hoping to flip the switch on being competitive to being back to square one with all of this. The Western Conference is off to a great start, and the Jazz are already six games out of the Play-In Tournament. We still have a lot of season to go, but they will be without their two best players for the next month or so. The Jazz also don’t have their 2027 draft pick. It will go to Memphis for the JJJ trade, so it’s not like they can benefit from another down year.

The goal will be to develop Peterson and Bailey. Get superstar tendencies and performances out of Peterson, and it’ll distract from another extended stretch of winning. The Jazz were just hoping to be past that part of their process.