Postgame Reactions: Luka Doncic Makes History, Tim Hardaway Jr. Gets Hot as Mavs Beat Pistons
After hitting a rough patch over the last few weeks, it appears that the Dallas Mavericks have finally snapped out of it. Following a big win at home over the Miami Heat on Thursday, the Mavs kept their positive momentum going on Saturday night with a 142-124 road win over the Detroit Pistons.
With the win, the Mavs improved to 36-28 on the season and pulled to within one game of the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference standings with 18 games left to play.
Luka Doncic was magnificent in Detroit, notching his 16th triple-double on the season with 39 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists to go with three steals and two blocks while shooting 13-24 from the field. It was Doncic's sixth consecutive 30-point triple-double, pushing him past Russell Westbrook for the longest streak in NBA history. Westbrook won the MVP award during the 2016-17 season when he initially set the record.
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"We're sharing the ball," Mavs head coach Jason Kidd said. "We're talking about getting a better shot. ... I thought the big thing was the ball touching the paint. That's where we wanted to get to early and on a consistent basis tonight."
On the season, Doncic is averaging 34.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game while shooting 49.7 percent from the field and 38.0 percent from deep. If it hadn't been for several key roster injuries early in the season, the Mavs might have been high enough in the West standings to make Doncic the MVP favorite, but as things currently stand, Dallas still has work to do in order to give him a legitimate shot.
Another key part of Dallas' win in Detroit was sixth man Tim Hardaway Jr. finally breaking out of his long shooting slump. He finished with 17 points while shooting 4-8 from deep in 18 minutes off the bench. If Saturday night was the start of Hardaway truly turning things around, that's a great sign for the Mavs' chances of moving up in the standings over these last 18 games.
On the latest episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, we discuss Doncic's history-making night and Hardaway's resurgence at length, as well several other key points, including: Kyrie Irving being efficient in limited minutes, Daniel Gafford making a major impact as a starter, Dallas needing to find more creative ways to get P.J. Washington involved on offense, and much, much more.
You can watch today's entire show below, and be sure to hit that "SUBSCRIBE" button, as well as leave your takes in the comments on YouTube:
