LOS ANGELES — Luka Doncic scored 42 points with 13 assists and seven rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers (6-2) beat the Miami Heat (2-5) 138-117 on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena. One night after scoring 45 against Toronto, Doncic has 87 points in two nights — and at least 37 in five straight games.
Doncic scored 16 points in the first quarter and the Lakers led 37-30. The second quarter was a shootout, 42-42: the Lakers shot 67.4 percent in the first half and led only 79-72 at the break, because Miami shot 59.5 percent itself and Giannis Antetokounmpo had 20 points in the half. Doncic had 24.
The game broke open in the first minutes of the third quarter. The Lakers scored the first 11 points of the half, capped by a Walker Kessler layup that made it 90-72, and Doncic scored nine more points in the first four and a half minutes of the quarter. A Ziaire Williams three-pointer made it 111-93 after three, Kessler and Austin Reaves opened the fourth with baskets to stretch the lead to 22, and Doncic’s three-pointer with 5:37 left made it 128-106 and gave him 40 for the night. The Lakers’ largest lead was 24.
The comparison is the story of the night. The Lakers shot 57.3 percent from the field (51-for-89) to Miami’s 50.7, made 19 three-pointers to Miami’s 16, and piled up 39 assists on those 51 baskets — the ball never stopped moving. They outrebounded the Heat 41-34 and outscored them in the paint 58-38. Miami actually won the free-throw comparison, 25-for-35 to the Lakers’ 17-for-24, and still lost by 21 — that is how decisive the shooting and the passing were.
Austin Reaves scored 27 points on 10-for-15 shooting for the Lakers, Kessler had 15 points and 15 rebounds, and Sandro Mamukelashvili added 13 points off the bench.
Antetokounmpo led Miami with 30 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, though he also committed seven turnovers. Klay Thompson scored 19 points, Bam Adebayo had 16 points and nine rebounds, and Davion Mitchell added 15 points and seven assists. The loss ended Miami’s two-game winning streak on the first night of a five-game West Coast trip.
The Lakers’ next game is Wednesday at Sacramento.
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