Mavs Blast Rockets with Luka Doncic Triple-Double, Christian Wood Block Party

The Dallas Mavericks extended their win streak to a season-high five games on Thursday night as the defeated the Houston Rockets for the second time this season. Luka Doncic tallied yet another triple-double and Christian Wood recorded a season-high five blocks.

Dalton Trigg | Dec 29, 2022

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Coming off a historic 60-point triple-double on Tuesday, many wondered what Luka Doncic's encore would look like on Thursday when the Dallas Mavericks (20-16) took on the Houston Rockets (10-25) for the third time this season.

It wasn't another 60-point outburst, but Doncic kept his momentum going, as he dropped 35 points, 12 rebounds, 13 assists, one steal and two blocks as the Mavs blasted the Rockets, 129-114. It was Doncic's 54th career triple-double and league-leading eight this season.

Doncic was efficient yet again, as he finished shooting 11-21 from the field, including 4-9 from deep. He also shot 9-12 from free-throw line and was a +14 on the night. Over his last four games, Doncic has forced his way back to the top of the MVP race by averaging 44.3 points, 12.5 rebounds and 10.5 assists.

With the win, the Mavs now have a season-high five-game win streak. This is especially impressive given that Dallas has been without Josh Green, Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber for an extended period of time.

Christian Wood has been hosting a never-ending block party lately. After struggling with foul trouble in the first half, Wood rebounded well in the second half and finished with 21 points, six rebounds and four blocks in 21 minutes as a starter. The Mavs are now 5-1 when Wood starts next to Doncic.

"That felt good," said Wood of recording a season-high in blocks against his former team. "Just making an emphasis, just trying to be that help-side guy. Just trying to protect the rim, and these guys are just trusting me to challenge shots. That's what we've been working on in practice – me being that low man."

With Wood being forced to the bench with foul trouble, Dwight Powell responded by posting his best game of the season. Powell finished with a season-high 19 points on a perfect 8-8 shooting from the field. He also recorded six rebounds to go with one assists, one steal and two blocks in 21 minutes.

Tim Hardaway Jr. and Spencer Dinwiddie joined Doncic, Wood and Powell as the other two Mavericks to score in double-digits with 18 and 15 points respectively. Dinwiddie shot 6-8 from the field, including 3-5 from deep, and dished out six assists as well.

Next up, the Mavs will make the short trip to San Antonio to wrap up 2022 against the Spurs on New Year's Eve. Dallas will then start off 2023 by taking on the Rockets for the final time this season in Houston.

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Published Dec 29, 2022

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.