Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic entered Monday’s game against the Detroit Pistons having already posted three 50-point games on the season. That included an historic 60-point triple-double against the New York Knicks in late December.
Continuing what has been an absolutely brilliant season for the NBA All-Star Game starter, the Pistons had absolutely no answer for Doncic.
This dude dropped 24 first-quarter points, including 18 of the Mavericks’ first 20 points. He was on an absolute roll early.
With Detroit keeping this one close throughout, Doncic was asked to play hero ball. Like we’ve seen all season, he did not step down from the challenge. Instead, the generational star scored 10 points within the final four minutes of the game to drop another 50-burger with a resounding 53 points.
How good was Luka Doncic throughout the evening? He shot 17-of-24 from the field, including 5-of-11 from three-point range. The 23-year-old generational talent also added seven rebounds and five assists or good measure in the narrow win. As we said, he was absolutely on one.
At the end of the game, Doncic had words for the Pistons’ bench as he hit that 50-point plateau.
“They didn’t like when I chirped back… if they’re gonna chirp at me, I’m gonna chirp back. I ain’t scared,” Luka Doncic after the game.
Apparently, Detroit succeeded in waking Doncic up. That’s probably not the best of ideas at this rate.
With this performance, Doncic has matched Michael Jordan (twice), James Harden, and Russell Westbrook for the most 50-point games in one season over the past 62 years. There’s still a whole heck of a lot more to go in this season, too.
- Luka Doncic stats (2022-23): 33.0 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 8.4 APG, 1.5 SPG, 50% shooting, 35% 3-point
As you can see, Doncic entered Monday’s game as one of the top scorers in the game. He’s also averaging a near triple-double on the season.
What makes Monday’s performance so eye-opening is the fact that Doncic missed Dallas’ previous game with an ankle injury. It doesn’t seem like he missed a beat. At all.
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