Mavs' Luka Doncic Named to All-NBA First Team for 3rd Straight Season
The NBA announced its All-NBA First Team results on Tuesday, and Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic made the cut for the third consecutive year. Doncic joined the exclusive group of Kevin Durant, Tim Duncan and Max Zaslofsky to make the All-NBA First Team three times before turning 24 years old.
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After getting off to a sluggish start by his lofty standards in the 2021-22 regular season, Doncic turned things up a couple of notches throughout the year as the Mavs finished with a 52-30 rebound and the fourth seed in the Western Conference. Doncic averaged 28.4 points, 9.1 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game while shooting 45.7 percent from the field, including 35.3 percent from 3-point range.
The other four First Team selections were as follows: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks), Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns), Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets) and Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics).
Although Doncic had the better regular season, there will surely be some talk about Steph Curry (Golden State Warriors) and Ja Morant (Memphis Grizzlies) being snubbed, given that both of their teams finished ahead of Doncic's Mavs in the standings. However, Doncic was better than both of those players in the majority of statistical categories and deservingly received proper recognition for it.
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Doncic will now attempt to keep the Mavs from being swept by Curry's Warriors in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night. If he prevails, Game 5 would be on Thursday night at Chase Center in San Fransisco.
“It's not over yet, but it's not going to be easy," said Doncic. "The Warriors are not going to give you anything easy. I think we're going to learn a lot, and we're still learning, but like we've got to come 100 percent every game.”
