Luka Doncic's Magical 49-Point Night Leads Dallas Mavs' Thrilling Win Over Brooklyn Nets
Going into the Dallas Mavericks' home opener against the Brooklyn Nets, there was no shortage of intriguing storylines to follow. After being involved in a mid-season trade nearly nine months ago, Mavs star Kyrie Irving and Nets role players Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith came into this one with a little something extra to prove ... but it was Luka Doncic who stole the show from all of them.
After enduring a tightly-contested contest through all four quarters, the Mavs ultimately survived a hot 3-point shooting night from the Nets and pulled away with a 125-120 win to push their early-season record to 2-0.
After leading Dallas with a 30-point triple-double in Wednesday's season opener, Doncic led the way for the Mavs yet again, besting himself by putting up 49 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. He shot 16-25 from the field - including a crazy one-handed bank-shot 3-pointer to essentially seal the win - 9-14 from deep and 8-10 from the free-throw line. Perhaps most impressive, though, was Doncic's zero turnovers.
"I don't know,” Doncic said when asked how he got that crazy one-handed 3-pointer to go in. “I just saw it was, like, two or three seconds left. I said I just gotta put it up, you know? Gotta touch the rim so we can have a chance of getting the rebound... But yeah, I don't know how I made that."
After getting off to a historic start last season, Doncic has his eyes set on doing the same thing this year as well. It's his basketball world, and we're just living in it.
Luka Doncic torched the Brooklyn Nets to give the Dallas Mavericks a 2-0 record.
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Kyrie Irving struggled shooting the ball through three quarters, but as he always seems to do, he turned it on in the fourth to keep the Mavs attached while Doncic rested on the bench. He ended up with 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the winning effort.
Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith had admirable performances in their return to Dallas. Dinwiddie finished with 23 points and eight assists, and Finney-Smith finished with 12 points and seven rebounds. Rising young guard Cam Thomas led Brooklyn with 30 points on 12-19 shooting.
Rookie big man Dereck Lively II earned his first career start against Brooklyn after his eye-opening NBA debut against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday. He followed up that stellar performance by putting up nine points, two rebounds and one block in just 17 minutes due to the Nets playing small-ball with Nic Claxton sidelined. There's still a lot for the 19-year-old to learn, but he's shown great poise through these first two games.
"Yeah, small ball was big tonight,” Mavs head coach Jason Kidd said. “Looking at DP [Dwight Powell] in the past, he's done a pretty good job of guarding [Ben] Simmons. And then Maxi [Kleber] has been one of our defensive guys. So having those two guys and understanding Lively hasn't seen that a lot here in this league, that's why we went with DP and Maxi."
Next up, the Mavs will hit the road to take on the Memphis Grizzlies, who will be without star point guard Ja Morant due to a suspension and Steven Adams due to a season-ending knee injury. Memphis has yet to win a game in its first two outings, but will have a chance to change that before Monday's matchup with Dallas, as it will face the Washington Wizards on Saturday.
