Dallas Mavs Star Luka Doncic Joins LeBron James, Michael Jordan on Elite NBA Scoring List

Through 355 games for the Dallas Mavericks, Luka Doncic right in the middle of NBA legend Michael Jordan and Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James when it comes to highest scoring average in league history.

Dalton Trigg | Dec 18, 2023

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Dallas Mavericks

The undermanned Dallas Mavericks weren't able to pull off a miracle road win against the defending-champion Denver Nuggets on Monday night, as Nikola Jokic's squad came away with a 130-104 win.

Despite the loss, though, Mavs star Luka Doncic did what he seemingly does on a nightly basis these days by making a little bit of NBA history. The four-time All-NBA First Teamer finished with a game-high 38 points on 13-24 shooting overall and 6-12 from deep. He also tallied 11 rebounds and eight assists, but was also a -29 in 36 minutes due to the dominance of Denver's starting five.

Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets — Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Through 355 career games, Doncic now holds a scoring average of 27.9 points per game, which is the second-best mark in NBA history at that point in any player's career since the ABA/NBA merger. Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan is first on that list, and right behind Doncic in third place is Los Angeles Lakers star and the NBA's all-time leading scorer LeBron James.

Doncic has put up MVP-caliber numbers this season, and the Mavs have a 16-10 record while being fifth in the tightly-contested Western Conference standings. However, unless the Mavs can get healthy and give their superstar some more help in these games against true championship contenders, his MVP hopes will take a hit.

Luka Doncic's Shorthanded Mavs Outmatched in Road Loss vs. Nuggets

Things don't get any easier for the injury-plagued Mavs, as they'll fly home to Dallas to take on the red-hot Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. The Clippers have eight games in a row and 10 out of their last 12 games that started with a 107-88 win over the Mavs on Nov. 25.

Doncic's co-star Kyrie Irving was seen on the Dallas bench without a walking boot on Monday night in Denver, so perhaps reinforcements are on the way. Stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com for more updates leading into Wednesday's game.

Published Dec 18, 2023

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.