A feat that hasn’t been repeated in Los Angeles for seven decades. Something that Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, or Kobe Bryant didn’t accomplish. Not even LeBron James cracked this record in the eight years he spent in Los Angeles. Luka Doncic just did it before he was in LA for a whole year.

On a ‘new year, new me’ streak of remarkable defensive improvement, Luka Doncic led the Lakers to a 129-118 win of a 46-point outing. And while he’s had many 40+ point games this season alone, tonight made franchise history.

Luka Doncic took only 65 games to reach 2,000 points in Purple & Gold. That’s the fastest anyone in a Lakers uniform has reached. He was averaging 33.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.7 assists, and 1.6 steals per contest while shooting 46.7% from the field and 33.4% from three-point range in 36 games heading into tonight’s game.

The last one to do that within one season was George Mikan, who did it in 72 games when it was still the Minneapolis Lakers. He played for the original incarnation of the Lakers from 1947 to 1954 and later coached the team.

While superstars like Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem, and Shaq all had historic starts to their Lakers careers, none were able to maintain the sheer scoring volume required to catch Mikan’s ghost as quickly as Doncic has.

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This record is testimony to the speed at which Doncic has acclimated to the Los Angeles spotlight, in a franchise defined by the biggest scoring displays in basketball history.

Luka Doncic cements Lakers legacy

On March 18, 1999, Kobe Bryant played his 160th game since the Lakers selected him. During the game against the ‘Vancouver Grizzlies,’ Bryant reached the 2k milestone in his third NBA season. It took Shaquille O’Neal sooner than that, 77 regular games in LA. Doncic just beat Shaq’s record by a dozen games. And LeBron? 67 games.

There’s a bit of technicality at play here. LeBron James, the all-time scoring leader, arrived in LA in 2018 but didn’t play a full season because of a groin injury. He reached the 2k mark in a Lakers uniform in his second season.

The reason this was not considered breaking George Mikan’s record is that factors like continuity and the stark distinction between the Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers played a role.

At 6’10” in an era where the average defender was 6’2″, Mikan was a cheat code on his own. The record books have held Mikan as the baseline for a single-season 2k franchise record. James’ record was considered the modern, post-Minneapolis record, though not the record.

The longevity of this record proves the magnitude of what Doncic accomplished. Kobe Bryant was very young and took a long time to get his footing as a scorer. Shaq was faster but was hampered by injuries, as was Bron. 

On February 2, it would be a full year since the trade that sent Anthony Davis to Dallas in exchange for a new cornerstone for the Lakers in Luka Doncic. The 26-year-old got to work immediately, got in shape, and gave the Lakers a hot start to the 2025-26 season.

Doncic absolutely benefited from that blockbuster trade, arriving in LA as a finished product and redefining LA’s offensive ceiling.