The magic at Christmas is provided by Santa Claus, but in the NBA it is Luka Doncic’s job. The Slovenian genius signed a masterpiece this Monday with 50 points that gave the Dallas Mavericks a very important victory against the Phoenix Suns (114-128) and with which he took several personal records along the way.
Those 50 points are the third highest score in NBA history on the always-awaited Christmas Day. He equaled Rick Barry’s fifty and was only surpassed by Bernard King’s 60 and Wilt Chamberlain’s 59. In addition, Doncic reached 10,000 points in his NBA career tonight, a milestone he achieved in only 358 games.
Since Michael Jordan (303 games), no player has achieved it so quickly, which makes Doncic the fastest to reach 10,000 points of those still active. Considering all of NBA history, Doncic is the seventh fastest to reach 10,000 games and the sixth youngest to reach it.
Stratospheric marks aside, the point guard once again tortured the Suns who, since that already emblematic seventh game of the 2022 Western semifinals, have had a cold sweat every time the Mavericks’ 77 appears in Phoenix.
Doncic made 15 of 28 field goals – including a great 8 of 16 on triples -, was perfect from the line (12 of 12) and also completed his exhibition with 6 rebounds, 15 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks .
“It was a great away win. They have an incredible team so I’m really proud of our team,” he said on the ESPN broadcast after the match. Doncic also stressed that Dallas (18-12 balance) is still “far” from its maximum “potential” taking into account the losses of players like Kyrie Irving.
In the Suns, with terrible feelings, a terrible defense and only three wins in their last 12 games (14-15 balance that leaves them out of the play-in of the West), the best was Grayson Allen 32 points.
Without Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkic, nor Devin Booker, despite the rivalry he has with Doncic, nor Kevin Durant were up to the task. Booker finished with 20 points (6 of 14 shooting) and 10 assists and Durant contributed 16 points (4 of 11), 8 rebounds and 7 assists. Between them they added 9 turnovers.
No gifts, no Christmas carols, no good wishes. The Boston Celtics forgot the Christmas spirit during their visit to the Los Angeles Lakers and signed an impressive victory against their legendary rivals by 115-126 in the most outstanding game of the NBA’s special day for Christmas Day.
Since 2008, the two most successful franchises in the history of the league (17 titles each) have not met on this important day.
Leaders of the East and big favorites for the ring so far, the Celtics (23-6 balance) offered a couple of stretches of great authority this Monday and, although the final score was not excessively wide, they gave the sensation that when they press the accelerator, there is no one in the NBA who can stop them.
The Lakers (16-15) recovered from a disastrous start and stood up, but finally succumbed to a superior green team that left them with a worrying 2-6 since winning the NBA In-Season Tournament.
Quite the opposite happens to Boston, which after falling in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup has accumulated a fabulous 8-1.
Joe Mazzulla’s entire starting quintet achieved double figures in points, with Kristaps Porzingis (28 points and 11 rebounds) and Jayson Tatum (25 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists) as the top scorers.
Jaylen Brown (19 points) went from better to less and Derrick White (18 points and 11 rebounds) and Jrue Holiday (18 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists) shone as all-purpose and essential agents.
The Lakers had a majestic Anthony Davis (40 points and 13 rebounds) and Taurean Prince scored 17 points with 5 triples, but they were missing the highest scoring version of LeBron James, who five days after turning 39 years old contributed 16 points (5 of 14 in shots), 9 rebounds and 8 assists.
