Luka Doncic draws Wilt Chamberlain comparisons for start to NBA season
You know a player is operating at an elevated level when they put up numbers like Wilt Chamberlain, the greatest statistical monster in NBA history.
Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic is doing just that through the first two games of the new season. After dropping 43 points in their season-opening 119-109 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, Doncic posted 49 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists in the Lakers' 128-110 rout of the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday.
Luka Doncic matches Wilt Chamberlain
Doncic has produced those numbers at a highly efficient clip, joining Chamberlain as only the second player ever to average 40 points/10 rebounds/8 assists on 60% shooting in back-to-back games at any point in a season.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick tried to help Doncic reach 50 points on Friday, keeping his superstar in the game even as he pulled all his other starters with 3:14 left. However, Doncic missed one of his two free throws and thus finished with 49 before being pulled to the bench.
Luka Doncic makes more history
According to the NBA, Doncic is the first player to start a season with back-to-back 40/10/5 games, a feat that eluded even the greatest stat sheet-stuffers like Chamberlain, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook.
Furthermore, Doncic is the first Laker ever to begin a season with consecutive 40-point games. This is another remarkable feat, given the bevy of legends who've donned Purple and Gold colors, including Jerry West, Kobe Bryant and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Only Chamberlain, Anthony Davis and Michael Jordan have started a new NBA campaign with back-to-back 40-point games, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin.
The Lakers (1-1) will play their first road game of the season Sunday against the Sacramento Kings (1-1), their Pacific Division rivals.
Eagles’ Landon Dickerson Sends Blunt Message on ‘Tush Push’ Noise
The football news cycle is still dominated by the tush push, it seems.The Philadelphia Eagles have honed this play to near-perfection over the last five or so years, cycling through several offensive coordinators and personnel changes along the offensive line during that span. Yet it hasn’t changed the success rate of the play, nor how hard it is for defenses to stop.
After a video went viral on Monday seeming to show several Eagles offensive linemen committing a false start penalty on a successful fourth-and-goal conversion running the tush push, calls to ban the play have only grown louder. The NFL owners put it to a vote at the annual owners meeting this offseason, and the motion to ban it failed by two votes, leaving it in the game for at least another season.
Eagles LG Landon Dickerson was the latest Eagle to be asked about the play, answering some questions from reporters on Thursday. “I mean, I’ve heard a little bit, I don’t really care too much,” Dickerson said in his signature country drawl. “If you don’t like the play, get rid of it if you’re the league. I mean, run the play. Everybody can run it. It’s not that hard. I don’t know, it just seems unnecessary, it’s kinda old. So make a decision, figure it out. We’ll run it until we can’t.”
More Philadelphia Eagles’ Quotes on the Tush Push
That wasn’t all Dickerson had to say about the controversial play. When asked if they were hyper-aware of the chatter surrounding it, he said, “I mean, not really. I think there’s — you guys are very focused on it obviously, I guess it’s controversial. But I mean, at the end of the day, a quarterback sneak is a play that they’ve been running for probably a hundred years in football.”
“I mean you’re always cognizant, we’ve been that way since we had some issues back in like [2021] or [2022] with it,” Dickerson said on if they were extra “cognizant” of their execution since the refs might be paying them additional focus.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni shared his own thoughts on the potential false starts, though his statement was interesting. He didn’t really deny the idea that they committed penalties on the play, repeating that it’s a hard play to officiate and insinuating that you could spot penalties on every play if you slowed down the film.
Philadelphia Eagles Offense Stuck in Mud Through Two Games
What’s lost in this dialogue is how much the Eagles offense is struggling overall. The running game has been effective, but QB Jalen Hurts isn’t pushing the ball downfield. Through two games, he has just 253 passing yards, has taken three sacks, and has yet to throw a touchdown pass. Star WR A.J. Brown has just six catches for 35 yards.
If Philadelphia wants to repeat as Super Bowl champions, they need to snap out of whatever funk their passing game is stuck in at the moment. Now would be a great time, as they have an explosive Rams team coming to town on Sunday.
