DALLAS — Luka Doncic, who admitted fatigue after two games away during the Dallas Mavericks’ 0-2 road trip this week, reported back to work on Saturday night resuscitated. He attributed his energy to a great day of recovery and “two, three, four” pre-game espressos and a Red Bull.
The results: 42 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in the Mavericks’ 117-112 win over the Portland Trail Blazers at the American Airlines Center.
“He had 42, triple-double, just a little walk in the park,” said Dallas coach Jason Kidd.
Doncic hasn’t quite pulled off that kind of remarkable production routine, but this was already the fourth 40-point triple-double of the 23-year-old’s career. That’s sixth in NBA history, according to ESPN Stats & Information Research.
That performance followed Doncic being under 30 points for the first time this season. His nine consecutive 30-point performances were the second-longest such streak to start a season, ranking only behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 23-game streak early in the 1962-63 season.
After back-to-back losses to the Orlando Magic and Washington Wizards, Kidd expressed concern that the Mavs were asking too much of their Superstar. Doncic leads the league in usage rate for the third straight season.
“He’s human,” Kidd said. “But I think that he lost two in a row and he didn’t play well, the guys who saw him the most, he always bounced back. He did that tonight. He could easily have stopped the game to rest but he fought and put us in a position to win.”
Doncic dominated against the Blazers by attacking from dribbling. He was 13 of 22 from the floor, with all but two of his buckets getting in the paint, and 15 of 18 from the line, attempting more free throws than the previous two games combined.
“I was just attacking the paint,” said Doncic, who ranks 10th in NBA history with 49 triple-doubles. “You could see that in the last two games I didn’t hit the free-throw line and wasn’t efficient because I didn’t go onto the lane.”
The Blazers were determined not to let Doncic hit them, locking him in to force the ball out of his hands. His teammates responded by taking 3-pointers on four straight possessions in the final minutes to take command, the first coming from a Doncic assist and the next three off-the-ball moves being started by him.
“Luka is doing a phenomenal job as he’s a problem for defense,” said Mavs guard Spencer Dinwiddie, whose 20-point, 7-rebound and 6-assist outing was highlighted by the first three 3s of the clutch swirl. “He’s got two on the ball and he’s making the right reading, the right pass.”
Doncic consistently created wide-open 3-point looks for his teammates throughout the night. Aside from Dinwiddie (6 of 8 on 3s), the Mavs struggled to shoot from deep (14 of 43 overall). However, Doncic didn’t hesitate to give up the ball when play was on the line as a Mavs team bad at clutch situations knocked out the Blazers.
“I draw the defence, just attack the color and kick them out and they’ll be open the whole game,” said Doncic, who leads the league with 34.3 points per game and assists (8.1). is in eighth place. “Just keep shooting. I always tell them, ‘Keep shooting.’ You’re open, you have to shoot it. That’s it. I’ll keep my faith in her. That’s easy for me.”