Luka Doncic returned to the court Monday after a one-game absence with an ankle injury. He seems fine.
The Mavericks star torched the Detroit Pistons for 53 points in a 111-105 Dallas win. If this sounds commonplace at this point, it’s because it kind of is.
The effort was Doncic’s fourth 50-plus-point performance of the season and the fifth of his career. He now owns more than half of the nine 50-point games in Mavericks franchise history with a tally that isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon.
It was also the 19th 50-plus-point game of the current NBA campaign, tying the total for the entirety of last season with more than 1/3 of the league’s schedule remaining. It’s the second day in a row with a 50-point game after Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 50 on Sunday in a Bucks win over the Pelicans.
Luka needs just 24 shots
So how does Doncic differentiate one masterpiece from the next? Efficiency was the name of the game on Monday. Doncic needed just 24 field goal attempts to reach the second-highest scoring effort of his career. His career-high arrived just one month ago in a remarkable 60-point, 21-rebound, 10-assist triple-double in a heroic overtime win over the New York Knicks.
On Monday, Doncic finished 17 of 24 (70.8%) from the floor including a 5-of-11 (45.5%) effort from 3-point range. He hit 14 of 18 free throws while adding eight rebounds, five assists and two steals. He hit buckets when it mattered including scoring eight of the Mavericks’ last 10 points as they put away a close game down the stretch after trailing by four at halftime.
His last bucket bounced off the front of the rim and in on a turnaround jumper from the elbow.
It’s just not fair for the competition when the rim’s that kind.
Doncic ‘chirps back’ at Pistons bench
Doncic was clearly no worse for wear after an ankle sprain sidelined him early in Thursday’s win over the Phoenix Suns and for the entirety of Saturday’s loss to the Utah Jazz. And it sounds like he picked up some added inspiration from the Pistons bench.
“It was their assistant coach, he started chirping in the first quarter,” Doncic said after the game. “They didn’t like when I chirp back. They said ‘play basketball.’
“If they’re gonna chirp at me, I’m gonna chirp back. I ain’t scared.”
Chrip back he did, up until the game’s final moments. Pistons assistant Jerome Allen appeared to be his primary sparring partner.
Detroit’s head coach Dwane Casey, meanwhile, wasn’t bothered in the slightest.
“That’s the way it should be. Competitive,” Casey told reporters postgame. “I love the way Luka plays and carries himself. … It was clean, nothing dirty about it.”