Luka Doncic Scores 53, Calls Out Pistons’ Trash-Talking Assistant Coach: ‘I Ain’t Scared’

The star point guard erupted for a 53-point outburst against Detroit, and had a message for the Pistons’ bench afterward.
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Throughout his electrifying young NBA career, Luka Doncic has never been shy. In the midst of his most prolific scoring season yet, that didn’t change Monday night against the Pistons.

Doncic poured in 53 points on 17-for-24 shooting from the field as Dallas pulled off a 111–105 home win. In the middle of it all, Doncic found time to talk some trash to the Pistons’ bench, commenting on the back-and-forth after the game by saying, “I ain’t scared.”

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“It was their assistant coach. He started chirping in the first quarter,” Doncic said. “They didn’t like when I chirped back. They said, ‘Play basketball.’ If they’re going to chirp at me, I’m going to chirp back. I ain’t scared.”

It was Doncic’s fourth 50-point game of the season and fifth of his career, making him just the third NBA player in the past 50 years to have five such games in their first five seasons. The other two are Michael Jordan (17) and LeBron James (five), per ESPN Stats & Info.

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Nick Selbe
NICK SELBE

Nick Selbe is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about baseball and college sports. Before joining SI in March 2020 as a breaking/trending news writer, he worked for MLB Advanced Media, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report. Selbe received a bachelor's in communication from the University of Southern California.