The Los Angeles Lakers spent the opening 23 minutes of Friday night’s NBA Cup matchup looking completely disjointed from the perimeter.

JJ Redick watched his team shoot a dismal 0-for-12 from three-point range in the opening quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers. The misses kept piling up into the second frame, reaching 0-for-15 before Jake LaRavia finally got a deep shot to fall.

And just as the Lakers crowd resigned itself to a double-digit halftime deficit, Luka Dončić flipped the script with a heave that got everyone off their seats.

NBA Fans Stunned After Luka Dončić’s Incredible Effort Against Portland

Trailing by 10 points (60-50) with mere seconds left on the clock, Dončić had the ball in the backcourt and steadied himself before launching a desperate, 62-foot heave.

The ball banked in just as the buzzer sounded, slicing Portland’s lead to seven.

The home crowd erupted into a frenzy over the absurd finish to an otherwise brutal half of basketball.

Social media, of course, caught fire before the teams even reached the locker room tunnels, as one hoops fan exclaimed, “I’m sorry, man, but Luka is a better tough shot maker than Curry.”

“Genuinely clears SGA,” another user posted.

“This dude’s ridiculous, that’s all I can say,” SM Highlights wrote.

“Learning from Steph,” another hoops fan claimed.

“This angle of Luka’s full court shot is INSANE,” BrickCenter shared.

Before that miraculous make, the Lakers were putting on a shooting clinic in all the wrong ways, and possessions largely featured stagnant ball movement and contested, late-clock attempts with no real chance of going in.

The Lakers team handle chimed in as well, writing, “Luka Dončić is really good at basketball.”

Regardless of their offensive woes, Los Angeles managed to keep the game within striking distance by attacking the paint and earning trips to the free-throw line.

But the Lakers can’t expect to rely on absurd buzzer-beaters to bail out lethargic half-court execution.

The spacing issues that plagued them throughout the first quarter against Portland are a vulnerability, and L. A needs healthy bodies and reliable secondary shooting to punish teams that load up on Dončić.

Help has arrived in the form of Adou Thiero, who made his season debut against the Blazers after missing the first few weeks of the campaign due to a left knee effusion.

While not expected to carry a massive scoring load, Thiero’s physical presence and defensive versatility give Redick another option on the wing as the coaching staff scramble to find ways to generate easier looks for the perimeter players to build early confidence.

As far as the game was concerned, Dončić didn’t cool off after halftime, either. He finished the night with 53 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, carrying Los Angeles to a 124-118 comeback victory.

Shooting 17-for-33 from the field in 38 minutes of exhausting two-way action, he completely overwhelmed Portland’s defensive coverage down the stretch.