Preparing for their Christmas takeover with the last game of their tiring road trip set to close in their Texas neighbor, the Dallas Mavericks had a major reliance once again on Luka Doncic.
Doncic was nothing unusual. He just came up huge again for the Mavs, dropping a 50-point piece against the Houston Rockets on Friday night win. To go with his scoring outburst, he also filled the stat sheet with a near triple-double, carving 10 rebounds, eight assists, and three steals in 42 minutes of play.
“Luka is Luka,” coach Jason Kidd said, per Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News. “He’s the best player in the world, and he showed that tonight.”
On the night that his supporting cast caught a cold, Doncic had no choice but to assume greater responsibility.
To dispute his teammates being passive, the Slovenian superstar caught fire and went on to shoot 17 for 30 from the field while draining his six threes out of 12 attempts.
His last long bomb came in clutch, locking the 112-106 road win with a deep three with 19.2 seconds remaining.
“Besides Luka, we didn’t have a really high percentage from the floor,” Kidd said. “But Luka sensed that and controlled the game.”
For Doncic, the crucial play can only be credited to his teammates making it also possible out of their ball rotation.
“Just keep trusting the play,” Doncic said. “They doubled me a couple times, and I passed the ball and then we [got] great shots out of it. Make or miss, I would do it again.”
The Mavs will close out their four-game road trip with a satisfying 2-2 card as they head back home to Dallas for a holiday showdown with the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.
