Mavs' Luka Doncic Doing Things NBA Hasn't Seen Since Young LeBron James

The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night thanks in large part to Luka Doncic taking over with a 40-point performance that was nearly a triple-double. With his 25th birthday less than a week away, Doncic is doing things we haven't seen since a young LeBron James back in the day.

Dalton Trigg | Feb 24, 2024

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Dallas Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks are on roll, having won seven consecutive games and pushing their record to 33-23 after a resounding win over the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night.

A big reason for the Mavs' success this season has been the MVP-level play of Luka Doncic, who is averaging a career-high and league-leading 34.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 9.6 assists while shooting 49.2 percent overall and a career-high 37.9 percent from deep.

LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, Luka Doncic — Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

To put into perspective how special Doncic has been, not just this season, but throughout these first six seasons of his young career, he is the first player since LeBron James to record at least 10,000 points, 3,000 rebounds and 3,000 assists before turning 25 years old. Doncic will celebrate his 25th birthday in four days, and he currently has career totals of 10,747 points, 3,249 rebounds and 3,090 assists.

Despite Doncic's sustained success, the Mavs struggled earlier this season due to several unfortunate injuries and not having enough frontcourt depth. However, with Dallas' roster finally healthy again, and having newcomers Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington added into the mix, the Mavs could potentially win enough games in this final stretch toward the playoffs to help Doncic win his first MVP award.

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“[It’s] amazing," Doncic said of his new-look supporting cast. "I think we have an amazing team and seven in a row—it hasn’t happened for a while. I’m really happy with the guys we have on our team.”

With all the history the five-time All-Star seems to make on a nightly basis, adding an MVP, and perhaps even a championship to his mantle, would just be icing on top of the cake at this point.

Published Feb 24, 2024

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.