It’s starting to get redundant to say that Luka Doncic had a historic night but guess what? Luka Doncic had a historic night last night. Luka Doncic destroyed a depleted Golden State roster throwing down yet another triple double, his seventh in 14 games, with 35 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists in only 25 minutes en route to a 142-94 win. The most impressive part of last night was Doncic’ first quarter in which he actually had more points, rebounds, and assists than the entire Warriors roster. Doncic is the first player to achieve such a thing since Allen Iverson in 2003 and one of only 2 players in the past 15 seasons to have a 20-5-5 first quarter.
Hardaway Jr. made the most of getting the start in place of Curry, who was out with sickness. THJ said after scoring 20 and going 4-4 from beyond the arc “I wanted to go in there and make a presence for myself and for the team.”
Doncic and Hardaway were not the only players to shine last night. Jalen Brunson had a great night against his former Villanova teammates Paschall and Spellman. Brunson scored 15 points on 6-6 shooting. Porzingis added another double-double in his 24 minute stint on the court, his 4th double-double in a row which is a personal record for him. Courtney Lee and Ryan Broekhoff both played 12 minutes and were perfect from 3. The Accountant added 9 points and Lee added 12. The only player who didn’t see court time was veteran JJ Barea. At one point Mavs fans chanted Barea’s name, he jokingly got up from the bench and ran to the scorer’s table then quickly returned to the bench which got a great reaction from both the crowd and Luka Doncic.
After seeing his team take a 48 point L Steve Kerr told the press “Flush it down the toilet, literally you move on. You don’t take anything from a game like this.” But one thing you can take away from this game is that these teams are lightyears different than they were one year ago. There is no doubt that injuries have taken their toll on the Warriors roster this season.
The Mavericks will host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night and then travel to Houston on Sunday for a game against the Southwest Division leading Rockets.