Inside Mavs Star Luka Doncic's Latest 50-Point Scoring Masterclass
The Dallas Mavericks needed every bit of Luka Doncic's dominant 53-point scoring display to achieve their 111-105 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Monday. He tied Dirk Nowitzki for the second-highest-scoring performance in franchise history while achieving the highest-scoring outing within regulation.
Doncic had it going early, scoring 24 of the Mavs' 30 first-quarter points. The Pistons tried to send double teams at him often, resulting in him giving the ball up to an open teammate to make a play. The shots from his supporting cast were rarely dropping, requiring him to take over.
“I really think, in the first especially, we had pretty good looks. They just didn’t go in," Doncic said of his early scoring surge. "Sometimes they double, sometimes they didn’t. But I think we had really great looks.”
The foundation of Doncic's impact was the ease with which he managed to attack downhill on drives. Using only 17 drives, he scored 27 points while shooting 9-10 from the floor and 8-8 from the line. He didn't even record a single turnover. It was staggering efficiency.
“Somebody told me I was 12-13 from two," Doncic said of his success inside the 3-point line against the Pistons. "So probably I should have taken more 2’s than 3’s. But I think that’s efficient three shooting for me too.”
With the Mavs often deploying small-ball personnel, it was a clear challenge for the Pistons to balance respecting shooting threats instead of loading up in the paint against Doncic. Whether using a ball screen or attacking out of isolation, if he had space to work with, Doncic succeeded on the drive. His frame offered him an advantage against all matchups and most help rotations.
“He’s tough,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. “He gets you inside with his body, scores, gets to the free-throw line. If not, he steps back and shoots a three. I thought we did as good a job as you can to make somebody else beat you.”
Doncic often weaponized his pace to throw off the timing of the help defense. Playing at a single, fast speed can make it more predictable for the low-man to fully commit to aggressively challenging the finish attempt. Doncic displaces the help defender often with his ability to adjust his pace, deceptively use a dribble, and finish on the way down of his jump. All of that can be seen in the video below.
As he commonly does, Doncic displayed his savvy ability to play off two feet and use fakes deep on a drive. With how challenging it can be to maintain leverage as the defender against Doncic's frame, it's easier to fall for fakes. The window for the defender to actually contest the finish for a block or, at least heavily pressure, is limited. It's easy to see why Doncic draws so many fouls and is generally such an efficient threat in the paint.
Even when Doncic did end with a missed shot on a drive, the trip down the floor resulting in him scoring. Dwight Powell recovered an offensive rebound on that particular play following a miss on a hanging finish from Doncic. The ball popped around the Mavs' offense, leading to a post entry pass, resulting in an easy drop-step for a dunk.
When a path to the basket wasn't available on the drive, Doncic utilized his short-range shot creation ability to get to a spot with an advantage. His rare ability to stay poised in situations where many other players would feel disadvantaged is a critical element in remaining a threat, whether to get to a turnaround or fallaway jumper with a strong potential success rate.
It's clear that containing Doncic on drives is incredibly challenging. When the step-back 3-point shot is dropping at a high clip for Doncic, the task of slowing him down is all the more daunting. He's one of the most prolific paint threats in the NBA as it is. If he forces a more natural urge to try to contain his perimeter shot creation, it opens up his whole game.
Against the Pistons, Doncic ended up scoring 20 points using off-the-dribble jump shots. Overall, he went 8-13 from the floor on these attempts, but specifically, he shot 4-9 from beyond the arc. The core of his impact in this area involved making Detroit pay for switching in ball screen coverages. He knows he's getting the shot off against a big man.
When the defender is opting to play the drive, particularly going right, Doncic has the option of getting to a jumper. Against Alec Burks, Doncic took advantage of this defensive approach by using a jab step, clearing more than enough space to get a shot off from the corner. With an empty corner, Burks knew he was on his own. Doncic wasted no time and didn't even need to dribble to score.
It's not something that Doncic utilizes on a nightly basis, but he did showcase yet another counter when the on-ball defender is intent on cutting off a drive. In the play below, he draws Bojan Bogdanovic on a switch with the right side of the floor congested due to an exit screen developing. The clear option was to attack left. The drive was cutoff, leading to Doncic using a mid-range step-back.
The finish touch that Doncic put on his scoring masterclass occurred when the Mavs needed him most. With just a 107-105 lead and under a minute left in regulation, Doncic received the ball after a missed floater from Spencer Dinwiddie. The defense peel switched Doncic's drive to keep a defender in front of him. With the right side of the floor filled, he wasted no time getting into a turnaround jumper, taking advantage of the gap.
The final shot from Doncic was only one of his various critical clutch time moments for the Mavs. He scored eight of his 53 points in the clutch and shot 3-5 from the floor and 2-2 on free throws. In the end, he carried his team to a needed win to avoid falling back to .500, despite facing the NBA's worst team.
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