Luka Doncic's Historic 30-Point Triple-Double Streak Ends Against Bulls
CHICAGO — Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic entered Monday's 127-92 victory over the Chicago Bulls with a few historic streaks related to triple-doubles. While he did record a triple-double with 27 points, 14 assists, and 12 rebounds, the score was too lopsided for him to stay in to reach the 30-point or 35-point thresholds to continue his streaks of triple-doubles while scoring those totals.
In his previous performance, Doncic set the NBA record for most consecutive 30-point triple-doubles (six) after recording 39 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, helping to guide the Mavs to a 142-124 victory over the Detroit Pistons.
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While the other streaks ended, Doncic did manage to tie the NBA record for consecutive 20-point triple-doubles after recording his seventh straight performance of this nature, joining Oscar Robertson and Michael Jordan as the only players to achieve such a feat.
The Mavs led 98-64 entering the fourth quarter, but Doncic was on the floor along with Kyrie Irving to begin the final period. Doncic had already totaled 24 points, 14 assists, and 12 rebounds at this point of the game. All he needed was to score six more points to extend his historic run.
Doncic made picking apart the Bulls' defense look easy, frequently connecting with his athletic rim-rolling bigs for assists, while getting to spots on the floor he wanted to score with the many options in his scoring repertoire.
“He gets so many different things involved in the game. Not only himself, but his passing and his vision and manipulating defenses," Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. "So, it’s going to take all five [defenders] out there to really be on point.
"Whether it’s him in pick and roll or ‘iso’ [isolation] situations or post-ups, obviously any elite scorer generally does it by getting fouled and getting to the free-throw line," Donovan continued. "He does that; he’s really good at generating free throws for himself, so you have to be really disciplined when you’re guarding him. Obviously, he’s strong and he’s physical, and he’s got a unique ability not only to get himself involved, but he can make the game easy for everyone else whether it’s generating catch and shoot threes for guys on the perimeter, or whether it’s finding their bigs on rolls for lobs. He obviously does a lot.”
Doncic converted on a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter, bringing his scoring total to 27 points. He missed multiple step-back 3-pointers with the chance to meet the mark before checking out of the game for the final time with 6:09 remaining in regulation.
Hours before the game, Doncic was named the Western Conference Player of the Week for games played between March 4 and March 10, averaging 37.7 points, 10.7 assists, and 10.3 rebounds, while guiding Dallas to a 2-1 record.
“I think he had a great week; the team has had a great week. We’ve had our struggles, but it just shows the character of the team – it shows Luka [Doncic] as a leader being able to play at the level that he’s playing at," Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. "He’s had a great month in February, and now he’s won player of the week."
With the score already being lopsided, the Mavs had to weigh the risk of an avoidable injury. Kidd appreciates how Doncic focuses on playing to win the game, with his impact naturally leading to gaudy box score numbers. The team did allow him to stay in the game to grab a 10th rebound in Detroit with over three minutes remaining in regulation despite having a sizeable lead, but that was to set a new record. In Chicago, he entered the game already holding that honor.
"I think he just plays the game. He plays to win and so we keep stats and all that good stuff and combinations. He's just one that will fill up the stat sheet. I mean, his ability to score, his ability to pass, his ability to help rebound," Kidd said. "So he just plays the game. I think he finds himself in a different air in the sense of being one of the best players to ever play this game at a very young age. And so just to understand what he's doing, then you have to add that into winning and also protecting, putting him in a situation if he did get hurt while we were up by 30 something.
"But again, the conversation that we were having, to make sure that that didn't happen because it's easy to leave him in to chase that," Kidd continued. "We did that in Detroit, he got the rebound. We got him out. So, again, it's about winning for him. The numbers, I don't know if they really mean anything today, but when he does retire, he'll look back to see, you know, the game that he was playing was at a different level than anybody else."
Looking ahead, the Mavs will take on the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night in their next matchup, marking a one-game return to American Airlines Center.
