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LOS ANGELES — The biggest play of Luka Doncic’s 53-point night was a shot he launched from the far free-throw circle as the first half ran out, off the glass and in. The Los Angeles Lakers (8-2) were down double digits and shooting badly, and Doncic said afterward he knew what the shot was for: “It changes the whole energy in the team and in the gym, so I thought it was an important shot to make — so that’s why I decided to make it.” Asked whether he meant to go off the glass: “Sure.”

The Lakers rode that energy into a third quarter that decided the game, outscoring the Portland Trail Blazers (6-2) 34-15 to turn a seven-point halftime deficit into a lead they kept the rest of the night, winning 124-118 at Crypto.com Arena in an Emirates NBA Cup game. Doncic scored 20 of his 53 in that quarter. On the defensive end of it, he said the halftime talk was simple: “We talked in the locker room about belief, and we all believe in each other.” Portland came in with the league’s best offense and scored 15 points in the quarter — “just shows what we’re capable of,” he said.

The night sat on top of the run that has defined the first two weeks of the season. Doncic’s 40-point games, in order: 52 at Utah on Oct. 25, 41 against Portland on Oct. 27, then four straight — 45 against Toronto on Nov. 1, 42 against Miami on Nov. 2, 40 at Sacramento on Nov. 4 and 53 on Friday. Six 40-point games in nine games played, 361 points total. Through eight games he averaged 38.5 a game, first in the league by more than eight points over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and his 308 points through eight games were the most at that stage of a season since Michael Jordan’s 303 in 1988-89. In the availability, a reporter put the 40-a-game question to him directly — who was the last player to average 40 for a season? Doncic guessed Kobe Bryant, then, told it was a tall guy, landed on Wilt Chamberlain. His answer to whether that kind of season has crossed his mind: “It’s obviously a long season. We’re just 10 games in, we’ve got 72 left. As long as we win, I’m good. Hopefully it continues, but you never know.”

Friday’s scoring came against pressure. Portland has Toumani Camara and Jrue Holiday, “some of the best defenders in the NBA,” Doncic said. “They pressure a lot, so I just used the screen to get downhill and enter the paint.” He finished 17-of-33 from the field and 14-of-18 at the line, with five rebounds and five assists. The Lakers won the margins around him: Portland turned it over 24 times to 11, Los Angeles had 15 steals, and the Lakers owned the offensive glass 17-8. Austin Reaves scored 25 and Walker Kessler had 16 points and 12 rebounds. For Portland, Damian Lillard and Deni Avdija scored 22 apiece, Camara 18 and Donovan Clingan 17 with 11 rebounds.

Asked how he is holding up physically under this workload, Doncic said he is feeling great, and that the shots are there for the whole team even on a night they missed plenty: “If you’re open, shoot the next one. We missed a lot of open looks today but still got a win, so we’ve got a lot of room left for us.” Asked about the smiling, he said: “Basketball was my dream. Playing in the NBA was my dream. So I’m just playing my dream.”

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers (8-2) were down nine after the first quarter and down seven at halftime Friday night, and then Luka Doncic and one enormous third quarter fixed all of it. Doncic scored 53 points and the Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers (6-2) 124-118 at Crypto.com Arena in an Emirates NBA Cup game, Los Angeles’ fifth straight win.

Portland controlled the first half. The Trail Blazers led 29-20 after one quarter and 60-53 at halftime, shot 51.4% for the game, and made 19 three-pointers. It wasn’t enough, because the third quarter belonged to Los Angeles outright: the Lakers outscored Portland 34-15 in the period, turning a seven-point deficit into a 12-point lead, and Portland never got back in front. The Trail Blazers scored 43 points in the fourth quarter to make the finish interesting, but the hole from the third was too deep.

Doncic’s line explains the comeback: 53 points on 17-of-33 shooting, 14-of-18 at the free-throw line, with five rebounds and five assists in 38 minutes — and the Lakers were plus-16 with him on the floor. It is his sixth 40-point game of the season and his first 50-point game of it, and it pushed his total to 361 points in nine games. Austin Reaves added 25 points and four steals, and Walker Kessler had 16 points and 12 rebounds.  

The strangest part of the game is that Portland was the cleaner team on paper. The Trail Blazers shot it better from the field and far better from three (44.2% to the Lakers’ 29.7%), and they passed it better, 29 assists to 17. The game was lost on the things that don’t show up in a shooting line: Portland turned the ball over 24 times to the Lakers’ 11, the Lakers came up with 15 steals, and Los Angeles owned the offensive glass 17-8 — extra possessions, again and again, for a team that took 93 shots to Portland’s 70. Both teams went to the line 37 times; the Lakers made 29 of theirs, Portland 27.

Damian Lillard and Deni Avdija scored 22 apiece for Portland — Avdija with 11 assists and nine rebounds to go with it — Toumani Camara added 18, and Donovan Clingan had 17 points and 11 rebounds. Avdija also turned it over eight times, the biggest share of the problem that undid the Trail Blazers’ night.

The Lakers take the five-game win streak on the road now: at the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 3 p.m. MST on NBA TV, then at Atlanta on Monday and at Milwaukee on Wednesday before they come to Phoenix on Nov. 15. 

TUCSON — The Arizona Wildcats (7-2, 4-2 Big 12) were eight points down with less than two minutes to play Friday night, and they won the game anyway — a touchdown, a fumbled kick return, and a field goal in the last 1:45 of the night. Michael Salgado-Medina’s 37-yard field goal with 43 seconds left gave Arizona a 29-28 win over the TCU Horned Frogs (4-5, 2-4 Big 12) at Casino Del Sol Stadium, the Wildcats’ seventh straight home win and a second straight winning regular season.

Arizona started the night the way it wanted to. Noah Fifita hit Isaiah Mizell for a 20-yard touchdown in the first quarter, and Salgado-Medina’s 43-yard field goal made it 10-0. Then the game turned. Jaden Craig ran for a 7-yard touchdown in the second quarter, and with Arizona driving to answer, Hudson Hooper intercepted Fifita at the TCU 8-yard line and ran it back 93 yards for a touchdown. TCU led 14-10 at halftime, and Arizona’s only turnover of the night had cost it the lead.

The second half went back and forth. Fifita ran for a 9-yard touchdown to put Arizona back in front 17-14, Craig answered by throwing a 6-yard touchdown to Jordan Dwyer, and after Salgado-Medina’s 23-yard field goal cut it to 21-20 early in the fourth, Craig ran for his second touchdown of the night, a 2-yarder that put TCU up 28-20 with 6:35 left. Arizona’s defense gave it a chance all night — Tre Smith blocked a TCU field goal in the third quarter, and TCU kicker Kyle Lemmermann missed both of his field goal tries — but with 6:35 to go, the Wildcats needed two scores.

They got them in 62 seconds. Fifita drove Arizona down and, on third-and-15 with 1:45 left, found Quincy Craig for a 15-yard touchdown. The two-point try failed, and Arizona still trailed 28-26. The kickoff after it decided the game: TCU’s returner muffed the catch, Arizona recovered, and Salgado-Medina — perfect on the night, three field goals in three tries — put the 37-yarder through with 43 seconds left. TCU had no time to answer.

Fifita finished 24-of-37 for 313 yards and two touchdowns passing, plus the rushing touchdown, on the best defense in the Big 12 — TCU came in allowing 14.1 points a game and gave up 29. Gunnar Richardson caught 11 passes for 171 yards. And the run game Arizona had to get back on track after managing 12 rushing yards at Texas Tech last week produced 130 yards, against 49 for TCU. Arizona outgained TCU 443-281 — which is how a team can win a game it nearly gave away with 10 penalties for 111 yards and a pick-six. Jaden Craig accounted for three TCU touchdowns, two rushing and one passing, and threw for 232 yards.  

Arizona is home again next week, against Utah on Saturday, Nov. 14, at Casino Del Sol Stadium.

TEMPE — The Arizona State Sun Devils (5-4-0, 1-2-0 NCHC) had the game they wanted for two periods Friday night, and then one penalty took it away from them. The No. 4 Denver Pioneers (6-2-1, 3-0-0 NCHC) scored three third-period goals on their way to a 6-3 win at Mullett Arena, the middle two of them on the same five-minute power play, in Dave Hakstol’s first home game behind the Arizona State bench.

It was back and forth all night. Arizona State led 2-1, gave that goal right back, and went to the third period tied 2-2. Denver took its first lead of the night in the third, Arizona State answered to make it 3-3, and then Landon Hafele’s elbowing major midway through the period put the Sun Devils down a man for five full minutes. Denver freshman Daxon Rudolph scored twice on that power play, about two and a half minutes apart, and Clarke Caswell’s empty-net goal closed it out. Denver outshot Arizona State 52-25.

Hakstol said the problem ran the whole night, not just the third period — his team never got through the neutral zone with any regularity or speed, so it never generated much, and the game-winning play started 200 feet away, on a forecheck, with Denver coming through the neutral zone with speed and putting Arizona State on its heels.

“Outlet plays that turn into a second play with speed are at a premium, and there wasn’t enough of it tonight,” Hakstol said. He said the effort and the work level were good, but the Sun Devils have to get much more consistent coming out of their own end.

He pointed to the goal that tied it 2-2 as the other one that hurt. Arizona State lost a man off the faceoff draw — Hakstol said he didn’t know if the player got tangled up in a stick — and once one player starts doing somebody else’s job, there is a domino effect and the space opens up. This was a team that had just taken a 2-1 lead in its own building.

“You want to build that momentum and keep that momentum, especially in our own building,” Hakstol said. “It’s a little bit too easy to give one back to them there.”

The penalty kill, which has been a strength all season, is what the major exposed. Hakstol said the Sun Devils didn’t dictate much of anything on the kill against a power play with a ton of skill, one that moves the puck, finds the shooting lane from the top and gets net-front presence. 

“We didn’t dictate a whole lot on the penalty kill,” he said. “Let’s give them a lot of credit tonight. They’re a hell of a hockey team. They showed that tonight.” Denver’s Sam Harris reached 100 career points in the game, with a second-period goal and an assist on the empty-net goal.

It is two straight losses now for Arizona State, after the split at St. Cloud State last weekend, and there is no break in it: Hakstol noted Denver’s back end moves the puck so well that there is never much time and space, and the Pioneers will not be any different on Sunday. “We’ve got an opportunity tomorrow to look at it and work to get a little bit better tomorrow,” he said.

It was still a night Hakstol had been looking forward to — his first game behind the bench on home ice. “Awesome fans,” he said. “I knew that coming in. I was looking forward to the night.”

The series finishes Sunday, Nov. 8, at noon MST at Mullett Arena, on FOX 10+ and NCHC.tv, with radio on 910 AM.

Sun Devils in straight sets 25-13, 25-17, 25-18, Friday night in Lubbock. Arizona State is 19-4 overall and 10-2 in the Big 12, with its third straight win. The Sun Devils hit .523 as a team, a rally-scoring-era record. Noemie Glover: 19 kills, .750 hitting, 3 blocks. Next: Arizona State hosts Utah on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 1 p.m. MST on ESPN+.

TEMPE — Northern Colorado decided to guard Paulius Murauskas straight up Friday night, and Randy Bennett could have told the Bears how that was going to end.

“He’s tough cover straight up,” Bennett said. “Usually they’ve been bringing help. Tonight they really didn’t.”

Murauskas made them pay for it, scoring a career-high 33 points on 13-of-18 shooting in Arizona State’s 90-63 win over Northern Colorado at Desert Financial Arena. The Sun Devils are 2-0, and their new scorer has opened his Arizona State career with 21 points against East Tennessee State and 33 four nights later.

The 33 also carries some history with it. Murauskas is the first Sun Devil to score 30 in a game since Moe Odum scored 33 against Cincinnati on Jan. 24, 2026, and it is the fourth 30-point game of Murauskas’ career — he had two of them at Saint Mary’s last season, where he played for Bennett before following him to Tempe.

And Bennett’s point was that the scoring is only part of what Northern Colorado had to deal with. Murauskas added five rebounds and two assists, and when the Bears did send attention his way in the second half, the ball moved.

“He’s a really good passer, and so he sets the table for all of them,” Bennett said. “He’ll keep getting better.”

Murauskas pointed to the team getting more comfortable in its second game together — a group that has barely practiced in its own arena.

“First game is always kind of like that — anxiety and all that,” he said. “New place, new teammates, everything is new, new arena. We haven’t really practiced there much, like four practices. Just everything is kind of new.”

He also credited the rebounding, where Dillan Shaw finished with 12 rebounds and Phillip helped Arizona State win the boards 39-21. “Rebounding was better today, especially in the beginning,” Murauskas said. “Dylan did a really good job, and Philip did a really good job.”

And he finished with a message for the building, after a second straight home win to open the Bennett era.

“I just want more people to come, just more fans,” Murauskas said. “We’re going to flip this thing and make this place great again.” 

Arizona State is back at Desert Financial Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 10, against Hofstra at 7 p.m. MST on ESPN+.

TEMPE — It was close for about half of the first half, and then it wasn’t. The Arizona State Sun Devils (2-0) were tied 10-10 with the Northern Colorado Bears (1-1) early and led just 16-12 midway through the first half Friday night, before the run came and turned the game into a blowout — a 90-63 win at Desert Financial Arena in the second game of the Randy Bennett era.

Paulius Murauskas is why it broke open. He scored a game-high 33 points on 13-of-18 shooting, including 2-of-3 from three, with five rebounds — 18 of those points in the first half, most of them in the paint, where Arizona State outscored Northern Colorado 48-32 on the night. When a defense has to collapse on a big man scoring that efficiently inside, the whole floor opens, and that’s the story of this game: Northern Colorado had no answer in the middle, so everything else came easy.

The other half of the break was Bryce Ford off the bench. Ford entered early in the first half and scored 12 of his 17 points before halftime, on 5-of-7 shooting with back-to-back threes in the stretch that pushed a four-point lead to 14. Arizona State led 48-26 at the half and by as many as 30 in the second half, and the game never tightened back up.

That’s a different win from Monday’s opener, when Murauskas and Joel Foxwell carried the load against East Tennessee State. This time the scoring spread: Ford had 17, Dillan Shaw had eight points with a game-high 12 rebounds, two steals and two blocks, JRob Croy had eight, and Filip Malesevic gave the Sun Devils six points and 11 rebounds off the bench. Foxwell ran it cleanly — seven points, eight assists and no turnovers.

The team numbers show a game controlled in every area except one. Arizona State shot 53.8 percent (35-of-65) to Northern Colorado’s 42.9 percent (24-of-56), won the rebounds 39-21, the assists 16-13, the steals 8-1 and the blocks 4-0, and turned it over only five times to the Bears’ 11. Northern Colorado actually shot the three better — 44.4 percent (8-of-18) to 31.8 percent (7-of-22) — and still lost by 27, because the Bears shot 43.8 percent at the free-throw line (7-of-16) to Arizona State’s 68.4 percent (13-of-19) and couldn’t score inside. Manning Shareef led the Bears with 13 points off the bench, and Hunter Caldwell added 11.

Arizona State stays home to host the Hofstra Pride on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m. MST at Desert Financial Arena, on ESPN+.

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CALGARY — The Anaheim Ducks (9-7-1) were down 3-1 after one period Friday night, and they won anyway. Cutter Gauthier scored the game-winner with 1:34 left in the third period, his 12th goal of the season and his 10th in the last five games, and the Ducks beat the Calgary Flames (7-9-1) 5-3 at Scotiabank Saddledome for their fourth straight win.

Calgary took the game over early. William Stromgren opened the scoring at 2:23 of the first, from Zayne Parekh and Yan Kuznetsov. Jeff Malott tied it 27 seconds later, unassisted, at 2:50. Then the Flames scored twice more before the period ended — Joel Hanley at 16:29, from Morgan Frost and Simon Nemec, and Joel Farabee on the power play at 19:02, from Parekh and Frost. Anaheim went to the room down 3-1, and that was the turning point of the night: Calgary never scored again.

The comeback came one goal at a time. Tristan Luneau cut it to 3-2 at 12:02 of the second, from Jackson LaCombe and Leo Carlsson. Carlsson tied it himself 55 seconds into the third, on the power play, from Beckett Sennecke and Mikael Granlund. It stayed 3-3 until Gauthier finished it at 18:26, from Granlund and Sennecke — a one-timer past Dustin Wolf at the end of a rush. Nikita Nesterenko added the empty-net goal, unassisted, at 19:46.

Gauthier is the story inside the story. Ten goals in five games is a first in Ducks history — two against Buffalo on Oct. 29, back-to-back hat tricks against Ottawa on Nov. 1 and at Vancouver on Nov. 3, one at Edmonton on Thursday, and the winner tonight. He is from Sweden, and the run is his name on the franchise record, not anyone else’s.

The multi-point nights carried Anaheim: Granlund and Sennecke had two assists each, and Carlsson had a goal and an assist. For Calgary, Frost and Parekh each had two assists. In net, Ville Husso came on in relief for Anaheim and stopped all 10 shots he faced, while Wolf stopped 24 of 28 for the Flames, with the fifth goal going into an empty net.

The team numbers explain how the last 40 minutes flipped. Anaheim outshot Calgary 29-21 and outhit the Flames 21-16. Calgary won the faceoff battle, 57 percent to 43 percent, and blocked more shots, 22-12. Both teams went 1-for-3 on the power play, and both took six penalty minutes — so the difference wasn’t special teams. It was that after the first period, the Ducks scored four straight and the Flames scored none. 

Anaheim heads home to host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 6 p.m. MST at Honda Center, on ESPN+. Calgary stays home and hosts the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday at 6 p.m. MST.

TUCSON — The No. 22 Arizona Wildcats (6-2, 3-2 Big 12) get no time to sit on the Texas Tech loss. TCU Horned Frogs (4-4, 2-3 Big 12) are in Tucson tonight on a short week, and that turnaround is the whole story of this game.

Kickoff is 8:15 p.m. MST at Casino Del Sol Stadium on ESPN, with Anish Shroff, Andre Ware and Morgan Uber on the call. Radio: Wildcats Radio 1290 AM in Tucson and KFNX 1100 AM in Phoenix. Fans are asked to wear white.

Brent Brennan said it right after Lubbock:

“We have to work through this for 24 hours, and then we got to get ready for TCU. It’s a short week, and so we’re going to assess this, we’re going to grind it out, and I believe in this team.”

That is why the 34-26 loss at Texas Tech is already behind them. Brennan was proud of how they fought — “I’m proud of our team. They fought their ass off for four quarters and we didn’t get it done. That’s disappointing” — and by Monday his message was you can’t go back in time, you look forward and attack what’s in front of you.

What is in front of them is the best defense in the Big 12. Brennan said this week TCU is extremely well coached, Sonny Dykes has done a fantastic job there, and defensive coordinator Andy Avalos, whom Brennan has known a long time, has the Horned Frogs allowing just 14.1 points a game, tops in the conference. Nobody has scored more than 21 on them all season.

That is a direct test of what went wrong at Texas Tech. Arizona still throws it — Noah Fifita has 92 career touchdown passes and 11,664 career passing yards, both first among active FBS quarterbacks, and the Wildcats average 324.1 passing yards a game, sixth in the nation, and 34.9 points a game. Isaiah Mizell has 499 receiving yards in his last three games, including 182 at Texas Tech. But Arizona ran for just 12 yards in Lubbock, its fewest since 2024, and Brennan knows the run game has to get back on track — because a one-dimensional offense is exactly what a defense like TCU’s wants.

TCU is not just a defense, either. Brennan called the Horned Frogs incredibly explosive on offense. Quarterback Jaden Craig has thrown for 2,207 yards and 11 touchdowns, and TCU came from 13-0 down at halftime to beat Kansas 22-16 last week, outscoring the Jayhawks 22-3 in the second half. The history cuts the same way: TCU leads the series 2-1, beat Arizona 49-28 last season, and won the only previous meeting in Tucson, 13-10 in 2023. 

Arizona’s answer is home. The Wildcats have won six straight at Casino Del Sol Stadium, are 4-0 there this season, and Brennan spent the week asking Tucson to pack it — wear white, make it a hard place for TCU to play, with three of the final four games at home. A win tonight locks up a winning regular season for the second straight year, something Arizona last did in 2013 and 2014, and keeps the Wildcats, tied for third in the Big 12 and No. 22 in the College Football Playoff rankings, in the race with four games left.

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TEMPE — The Arizona State Sun Devils (1-0) play their second game of the season Friday night, hosting the Northern Colorado Bears (1-0) at Desert Financial Arena. Tipoff is 7 p.m., on ESPN+, with radio on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. It’s the first meeting between the schools, and ASU’s annual Salute to Service Night.

Randy Bennett won his ASU debut on Monday, 75-65 over East Tennessee State, and said afterward the newness of it all got to even him. “There’s a lot of new that made me a little nervous going into it, more so than usual,” Bennett said. “But all good. It’s a great experience, great atmosphere. We can get it popping.”

What he wants fixed by Friday is plain. “I thought our rebounding has been bad and we’re inconsistent,” Bennett said. “We’re usually a very good rebounding team — we should be, we have good size — but we’re just not there yet. Our habits aren’t where they need to be. Defensively, same. We didn’t defend the three well. We just make errors that we shouldn’t make. We’ll get better.”

 The boards finished 34-31 and the paint points 30-30 against the Buccaneers — not good enough, in his telling, against a team ASU should handle inside. What he liked was the composure: “Our guys kept their composure. I think we have good depth — we just have to get some more reps, more games.”

Paulius Murauskas, who followed Bennett from Saint Mary’s, led the opener with 21 points and nine rebounds, and Bennett explained why he leans on him: “Paulus knows I’m going to roll with him and I trust him, because I know he’ll play big games, little games — he’ll show up. And he did.” Joel Foxwell, the transfer from Portland, added 15 points, and the players’ own verdict on the opener matched their coach’s: a win, and not one they were satisfied with Northern Colorado is not a team to sleep on — this is the contested part of the night. The Bears were picked second in the Big Sky preseason coaches’ poll behind Montana State, they led their conference in scoring last season at 82.5 points a game under coach Steve Smiley, and they opened Monday by hanging 117 on Colorado College with 16 three-pointers. Freshman Jeremiah Hammond scored 17 in his first college game and Chiante Tramble scored 13. A team that shoots like that makes Bennett’s point for him: defend the three, own the glass, and look like the more complete team he’s been asking for since Monday.