On Monday night in Atlanta, Luka Dončić stuffed the stat sheet, racking up 32 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds, five steals, two blocks and three 3-pointers in the Lakers’ 124-114 victory over the Hawks.

It was the sixth straight win for the Lakers, and the eighth straight 30+ point game for Dončić. But it was his third-lowest scoring game of the season.

That’s how great Dončić has been to begin the 2026-27 campaign, as a 32-point performance ranks among his lowest-scoring outputs over his first 10 games.

Here’s the list:

• Oct. 21 vs. Golden State: 28 points (win)
• Oct. 23 vs. LA Clippers: 23 points (win)
• Oct. 25 at Utah: 52 points (win)
• Oct. 27 vs. Portland: 41 points (loss)
• Oct. 30 at Golden State: 37 points (loss)
• Nov. 1 vs. Toronto: 45 points (win)
• Nov. 2 vs. Miami: 42 points (win)
• Nov. 4 at Sacramento: 40 points (win)
• Nov. 6 vs. Portland: 53 points (win)
• Nov. 9 at Atlanta: 32 points (win)

Add it up, and Dončić has accumulated 393 points over his first 10 games of the season, a number only previously reached by Wilt Chamberlain in 1961 and 1962.

Dončić is just the third player since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976 to average over 36 points per game through their first 10 games of the season. He joins Michael Jordan, who did it in both 1986 and 1988, and most recently James Harden in 2019.

Already with two scoring titles on his resume — 33.5 points per game in 2025-26 and a career-best 33.9 ppg in 2023-24 — Dončić is in prime position to lead the league in scoring for the third time in a four-season span.

His current lead over second-place Steph Curry is 8.7 points per game, which is the same margin as what separates Curry (30.6 ppg) from 24th-ranked Nickeil Alexander-Walker (21.9 ppg).

Dominating the 1st Half

Whether he’s launching hook shots from 94 feet, signing autographs for fans, or making the Lakers’ staff do pushups after sinking a half-court shot, Dončić’s pregame routine is working to perfection, because he has been on fire from the opening tip all season long.

Dončić is averaging a league-high 13.4 points per game in the first quarter alone. Only 90 other players in the league average that many points for an entire game.

He follows that up with another 8.3 points per game in the second quarter, which ranks second behind Victor Wembanyama.

Add it up and Dončić is putting up 21.7 points per game by halftime. That would be enough to rank among the league’s top 25 scorers for an entire game.

That covers when Dončić is scoring. Now, let’s dive into where and how he puts up these ridiculous point totals. It starts with owning the lines.

How Luka does it

Dončić leads the NBA in both 3-pointers made (5.5 per game) and free throws made (9.6 per game). Just those shots alone account for 26.1 points every night. As the chart below illustrates, Curry is the only other player who comes close to matching Dončić’s dominance here.

While 3-pointers and free throws account for two-thirds of Dončić’s scoring, he still has the ability to get to the basket or finish in the midrange, which opposing defenders have to respect.

There are famous stories about Larry Bird trash-talking opponents by calling his shots, telling them exactly where and how he was going to score, and then doing it the next trip down the floor.

It was a case of great offense beating great defense. For Dončić, the entire league knows his favorite spots on the court. Look at the heat map below. The left wing 3-pointer is glowing like a blazing sun. Everyone knows the stepback 3 is coming. But stopping it is a whole other story.

Even when opposing teams play great defense, sometimes that’s not enough to prevent Dončić from getting buckets. In fact, Dončić leads all players this season in shot difficulty, with his field goal percentage 11.5% above expected.

Creating shots for teammates

Of course, there is another wrinkle to add when breaking down Dončić’s game. In addition to nearly putting up 40 points per game by himself, he still ranks sixth in the league with 7.9 assists per game, along with 7.8 rebounds (23rd) and 2.0 steals (12th).

With all of the attention that Dončić commands from opposing defenses — he ranks second in gravity behind only Curry — he will often find teammates open for high-percentage shots. That can be Walker Kessler rolling to the basket for an alley-oop, Austin Reaves cutting to the basket, or Matisse Thybulle and Sandro Mamukelashvili spotted up for 3-pointers.

HOW DID HE FIND MAMU 🪄

Luka Magic was on full display last night, as he recorded his 8th consecutive 30+ PT game to go along with 10 AST & 5 STL to lead the Lakers to their 6th straight win!pic.twitter.com/VaDrVtivHd https://t.co/CMrTKoriSi

— NBA (@NBA) November 10, 2026

The end result is a level of offensive creation that is unmatched around the league. When combining the points Dončić scores himself and the points he creates with his assists, he is a dozen points clear of any other player in the game.

Through 10 games, Dončić already has two 50+ point games and three 10+ assist games in the books. If he can maintain this pace, the history books will be calling as well.