If you were at American Airlines Center to witness Luka Dončić’s 60-point game, congratulations. You were a part of history. If you weren’t, don’t fret. You never know – and, well, no one ever really knows – what the magical No. 77 will do for his encore.
Yes, the odds of seeing another 60-point triple-double tonight, let alone in our lifetime, are slim. But it’s not like Dončić only has one good game per month. One game before making NBA history, he made franchise history by scoring 32 points against the LA Lakers, the most by any Maverick on Christmas Day. And it was just one game before that, remember, when he dropped 50 points in a road win against the Houston Rockets. Those same guys are in the building tonight.
This has undoubtedly been an all-time stretch for the 23-year-old Dončić, who’s made a habit of breaking the internet and shattering records throughout his young career. It’s come at a pivotal moment for the Mavericks as well, as the club has been missing several of its best defenders, including Dorian Finney-Smith, Maxi Kleber, and Josh Green. Without them, Dallas has had to score, score, score. Luka’s risen to the occasion.
It’s not as if he’s doing it alone, however. The Mavericks erased a nine-point deficit against the Knicks in just 33 seconds to force overtime on Tuesday night, and six of those points came by way of Spencer Dinwiddie and Christian Wood, who combined for 44 points and 15 rebounds of their own.
Dinwiddie added five assists and Wood blocked three shots, including a crucial swat on a Knicks 3-pointer in overtime. Tim Hardaway Jr., meanwhile, scored 26 points on Christmas Day and 21 in a big road win last week in Minnesota.
Those three players in particular have provided vital scoring to help the Mavs outpace their opponents, but given the injury absences, they’ve each had to take on more challenging defensive assignments at the same time. Hardaway, for example, defended LeBron James on Christmas and Julius Randle two nights later. Imagine the toll it must take on his legs to chase those guys around or bang with them down low on the block, all the while trying to preserve the energy needed to score 20. Wood, similarly, has played as the lone big man for most of his minutes in the last couple weeks, and he’s risen to the occasion by blocking multiple shots in seven straight games. The previous longest stretch of his career was three.
All the while, the team’s deeper reserves have found more opportunities to get on the floor. McKinley Wright IV, one of the club’s two two-way players, made a huge impact in 10 minutes against these same Rockets six days ago in Houston. The 6-foot Wright only scored two points, but he grabbed three rebounds (including an offensive board), nabbed two steals, and even blocked a shot. He plays hard and fast on defense, like a man possessed, two qualities that the Mavs have been missing at times since Josh Green suffered an elbow sprain. Sharpshooter Dāvis Bertāns has also been picking up minutes at the backup power forward spot, and he’s responded by knocking down 12 3-pointers in his last five games, shooting at a sizzling 46.2 percent clip. In the Mavs’ 6-point win in Houston on Dec. 23, Bertāns had a team-best +23 on-off split.
So what will Luka do for his next trick? Who knows?
Seriously, nobody knows. That’s what makes him so special. But one thing we’ve seen recently is that if opponents are going to throw enough people, limbs, and pressure at Dončić to force him to pass the ball, other players on this team are prepared to step up. Do the Rockets dare single-cover Luka again, like they and the Knicks tried to lately? If so, Houston might have a problem. But if they double-team Dončić the way the Lakers did all night, it could mean a big night is in store for Christian Wood or Tim Hardaway Jr., or maybe both, and Spencer Dinwiddie could get in on the action, too.
The Mavericks are slowly but surely starting to find ways to win games that earlier in the season they might have struggled to close out. That’s real, concrete progress, and it’s come at a time when they’ve needed as many players as possible to step up in major ways. Hopefully that promising trend doesn’t require magic tricks or more once-in-a-lifetime performances to continue.
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