Mavs Tuesday Donuts: Dirk's Twin Tributes, NBA Trade Talk & 'Life Without Luka'
DALLAS - Mavs Tuesday Donuts offers up a look at Dirk Nowitzki's Twin Tributes and 'Life Without Luka' as Dallas swings through Indy ... With An Eye On Another Trade
DONUT 1: LIFE WITHOUT LUKA
Kristaps Porzingis proved once again that it - "Life Without Luka'' - can be done. Monday night at the Pacers, KP completed the assemblage of two of his best games ever ... in back-to-back appearances.
Starring in Dallas' 112-103 win (see our game story here), Porzingis finished with a season-high 38 points and 12 rebounds. That's the bookend to what he accomplished at Houston on Friday, where his 35-point, 10-rebound game was not quite enough to push the Luka Doncic-less Mavs over the Rockets.
KP sat out Saturday's home win over Atlanta, and who can argue with that "load-management'' decision now?
DONUT 2: INDIANA JONESIN'
Coach Rick Carlisle downplayed the issue as even being an issue, but KP himself addressed it: Now he's got to find a way to be this productive when he's re-teamed with Doncic, who has missed these three games with an ankle injury and figures to miss three more.
"That's something in the future I want to figure out, how I can be effective also when Luka is playing," Porzingis said. "It's something we've been working on.''
DONUT 3: DIRK TRIBUTE, SAD VERSION
The death of Kobe Bryant in the tragic helicopter crash in California that also took the lives of Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter and seven other passengers continues to leave millions grieving.
Dirk Nowitzki is among those affected, saying, “It’s so sad. It’s something I don’t think I’ll ever get over.” Read more here.
DONUT 3: DIRK TRIBUTE, HAPPY VERSION
On Saturday night, the Atlanta Hawks came calling. The headliner among the visitors? Trae Young, who unfortunately exited with an ankle injury as Dallas won, ..... (Game story, starring Jalen Brunson, here.)
But the old man who stole the headlines from there? Vince Carter, playing in his final game at the AAC, did it one more time ...
And Dirk loved every second of the guy on the other team revving up that motor ... one more time.
DONUT 4: TRADE DEADLINE TALK
This time of year, tidbits of information — or, well ... ‘rumors’ — start surfacing about what the Dallas Mavericks might have planned when it comes to their NBA trade deadline plans.
Sometimes, that information can be accurate, like last season when we heard rumors about the Sacramento Kings being interested in Harrison Barnes over a month in advance. Sometimes, nobody but the people in the Mavs front office themselves know exactly what could be on the table, as we saw when the Kristaps Porzingis trade pretty much came out of thin air.
And this year, with Thursday's deadline looming? Let's start with where we think the Mavs are on RoCo and on Iggy ... and where we'd like them to be on a certain member of the Chicago Bulls. Good thoughts here with our Dalton Trigg.
Oh, and we've got an analysis of the "kicking tires" ideas on Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Toronto Raptors' Rondae Hollis-Jefferson as well.
DONUT 5: 'A FIREMAN'S EXISTENCE'
As the Mavs march to the NBA Trade Deadline, GM Donnie Nelson has a way with words. And so does DBcom's Dalton Trigg. They talk about Donnie's deadline 'Fireman's Existence' in an exclusive visit here.
DONUT 6: PERSPECTIVE
The Mavs are 50 games in. With a 31-19 record, they have left in the dust win totals at this point in the season from 2018-19 (23 wins), 2017-18 (16) and 2016-17 (20).
We've discussed at length how the rapid development and maturation of Doncic has allowed the franchise to "skip a step'' in its push to contention. There it is in black-and-white: We are just two seasons removed from this franchise winning just over half as many games at the 50 mark as its won this season.
DONUT 7: BY THE NUMBERS
Via @bobbykaralla: The only players in Mavs history with back-to-back games with at least 35 points and 10 rebounds: Dirk Nowitzki, Doncic, and now Porzingis.
DONUT 8: QUOTABLE
"I'm in a good rhythm now and I want to keep it going. I think we're playing pretty good basketball, we're moving the ball, playing aggressive." - Kristaps Porzingis
DONUT 9: THE DEHUMANIZATION OF DELONTE WEST
"You can ask me about all my personalities,'' Delonte West once gleefully told me before an on-camera interview, bobbing somewhere between"delightful'' and "disturbing.'' "I don't deny them. I'm proud of them. They're all me.''
Our updated thoughts on the former Mavs guard Delonte West's mental illness and overall condition is being viewed as of last week by 500,000 of you. ... along with the entire Video Visit that we did a few years ago. Here's hoping any heightened awareness of mental illness an help West and other sufferers.
DONUT 10: 'PAINTINGS AND PROTESTATIONS'
Our resident Sacramento Kings expert (yes, DallasBasketball.com employs one of those in TJ Macias) views with skepticism the promises being made by, and about, Willie Cauley-Stein. A deep-dive look into the player that owner Mark Cuban says was acquired by Dallas as "a steal-and-a-half.''
DONUT 11: WHAT'S ON TAP
The Mavs follow up the visit to Indy with a Tuesday off and then a Wednesday meeting at the AAC against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Dallas is now 31-19 and in sixth in the West. Memphis is 25-25 and in eighth. See y'all at the AAC!
DONUT 12: THE FINAL WORD
"That’s something that’s important to us as a franchise. It’s important to him. The No. 1 thing that’s most important is that he gets healthy.” - Rick Carlisle on Luka being able to participate in NBA All-Star Weekend.
