Luka Doncic was at his dominant best in the Dallas Mavericks’ Christmas Day game on the road against the Phoenix Suns. Doncic ended the night with 50 points, 6 rebounds, 15 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks as the Mavs won 128-114, and afterward, he spoke about how much he loves playing in front of hostile crowds like the one in Phoenix.
“It’s great. I love playing in this environment,” Doncic said when asked about being booed during warmups and in the game. “Especially away. It’s fun for me. When you make a shot, the whole gym is quiet. That’s the best feeling in the world.”
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The boos didn’t do much to slow down Doncic and neither did the Suns defense. When they double-teamed the four-time All-Star, he would make them pay by passing to the open man and if they left him in single coverage, he scored with relative ease. There was simply nothing they could do.
Doncic was 15-25 from the field, 8-16 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 12-12 from the line in the contest. He just continues to have his way with Phoenix and now has career averages of 27.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game against them.
Doncic still just a 6-11 record against them in the regular season in his career, but three of those wins have come in the last four games. It was also, of course, just over a year ago that he and the Mavericks stunned the Suns in the playoffs, blowing them out in Game 7 in Phoenix.
That result and all the trash talk during that series is what created this rivalry and it somewhat made the Slovenian public enemy No. 1 in Phoenix. Doncic probably will get boos at the arena for the years to come, but he’ll just keep using it as fuel to dominate the Suns on the court.
The 24-year-old also made history along the way here, as Doncic became the fastest among active players to get to 10,000 points. He accomplished this feat in his 358th game, with only Wilt Chamberlain (236), Michael Jordan (303), Elgin Baylor (315), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (319), Oscar Robertson (334), and George Gervin (355) doing it in fewer games.
Luka Doncic For MVP?
I’d stated previously that Doncic had a chance to make a statement in this game against the Suns and he certainly did that. This was quite a memorable performance and he keeps building on that MVP case.
In each of the last two seasons, Doncic came in as one of, if not the favorite to win the award, but didn’t even manage to earn a first-place vote. Unless he and the Mavericks drastically fall off from here on out, he will get strong consideration for the award and deservedly so.
Doncic is averaging 33.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 9.4 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game this season while shooting 48.9% from the field. He has also led the Mavs to an 18-12 record, which is quite impressive when you consider that Kyrie Irving has missed almost half of those games.
At this point, the top two MVP candidates for MVP, for me, are Doncic and Joel Embiid. They’ve both had phenomenal seasons and this race could end up going down the wire.
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