Dallas Basketball

Bloody-Lip Luka Doncic Scores 28 in Dallas Mavs vs. Denver Nuggets First Half

The Dallas Mavericks are taking on the Denver Nuggets on Monday night, and superstar Luka Doncic got his lip bloodied in the first half.

Dalton Trigg

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As if the odds weren't already stacked against the shorthanded Dallas Mavericks enough in the Mile High City against the Denver Nuggets on Monday night ... superstar Luka Doncic got a bloody lip in the second quarter as the Nuggets had their way on the offensive end.

That apparently didn't make Doncic too happy, as he proceeded to torch Denver to the tune of 28 points in the first half while shooting 10-16 from the field and 6-9 from deep. This comes just one game after he put up 30 first-half points in a Saturday-night win against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Doncic also had five rebounds and six assists. A 28/5/6 stat line is one most NBA players would dream of having for an entire game, and yet, Doncic continues to accomplish such feats in very little playing time.

Despite the outburst from Doncic, the Mavs still found themselves down at halftime, 68-59. Dallas shot 53.3 percent from the field and 40.9 percent from deep, but Denver did one even better by shooting 57.8 percent overall and 58.3 from beyond the arc.

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Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

The Mavs, who are missing star point guard Kyrie Irving and key role players Dereck Lively II, Josh Green and Maxi Kleber, have had the best player in this game so far in Doncic. However, the Nuggets have shown why they are the defending NBA champions, as they just simply have the better team overall.

Luka vs. Jokic Round 2: MVP Implications for Mavs at Nuggets?

There are still 24 minutes left to play in this one, so we'll see if the Mavs can pull off what some might consider a miraculous comeback in the mile-high altitude. If they do, then the national media will have no choice but to move Doncic up their MVP favorite lists.

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Dalton Trigg
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.

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