Dallas Basketball

Shades of Michael Jordan & Wilt Chamberlain: Dallas Mavs Star Luka Doncic's Historic Dominance vs. LA Clippers

Only Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan have historically dominated teams the way Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic has dominated the Los Angeles Clippers over the last six years.
Dalton Trigg|
Shades of Michael Jordan & Wilt Chamberlain: Dallas Mavs Star Luka Doncic's Historic Dominance vs. LA Clippers
Shades of Michael Jordan & Wilt Chamberlain: Dallas Mavs Star Luka Doncic's Historic Dominance vs. LA Clippers

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Dallas MavericksLos Angeles Clippers

Although the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers have much different rosters than the ones they had during those epic playoff battles in 2020 and 2021, Luka Doncic has a long memory, and he always makes sure to bring his best anytime he's playing against one of his biggest rivals.

After putting up 44 points on a career-best 17-21 shooting from the field in the Mavs' 144-126 In-Season Tournament win on Friday night, Doncic now averages 33.2 points against the Clippers for his career, including playoff games. He has been so dominant when playing the Clippers, there are now only two other players in NBA history have averaged more points against a single opponent throughout their careers (with a minimum of at least 25 games, HT, ESPN): Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan.

“It was great. It was our defense, and we had the pace. We said before this game that we need to run, so that’s what we did," Doncic said after his latest masterpiece. "We don’t have many games for this In-Season Tournament, so it’s good that we got to pull this one out. Every game matters and obviously we have a lot of [regular season] games, but I think our start has been great.”

Doncic has posted five 40-point games against the Clippers in the regular season, and 10 overall if you include playoff games – the most he's had against any opponent since coming into the league in 2018. He also joined another rare list on Friday, becoming just the third player in league history since Jordan and LeBron James to notch his 31st 40-point game before turning 25 years old.

After multiple years of being the preseason favorite to win league MVP but falling short due to his team's lackluster record, Doncic appears to have his best chance of winning the award this season with the Mavs off to their best start in nearly 20 years at 7-2.

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.

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