For our first 10 things of 2023, we highlight Luka’s volcanic shooting, Herro-ics in Miami, LaMelo Ball’s aimlessness, and a new invention from Nikola Jokic, plus issue a futile finger wag at obtrusive in-game ads. Happy New Year!
Luka Doncic, not settling
It’s hard to track every individual scoring explosion, but Doncic’s six games before a semi-dud against the Boston Celtics on Thursday was more like a prolonged volcanic eruption: 44 points on 53% shooting, including 43% from deep. That doesn’t even look real.
All the focus on Doncic’s ball dominance has obscured (a little) that he has reached a new efficiency level. After a chilly start on those patented step-backs, Doncic is up to 35% from deep.
He has hit 75% at the rim and 55% from the floater range — absurdity. The Mavs have scored 118.7 points per 100 possessions with Doncic on the floor — just above Boston’s league-leading offense. That plummets to 104 when he rests — a tribute to Doncic’s brilliance and an indictment of the roster around him.
The Mavs are built to jack 3s off Doncic passes, but Doncic knows the most basic NBA math: a shot at the rim is the best shot. His height, imagination, and daring grant him access to passes off-limits to almost everyone else:
A double-team on Doncic normally means an open triple for someone else — even if his screener, Christian Wood here, is rolling to the rim. (Lineups with Wood as the only big — including the Mavs’ current starting five — have proved as unguardable as anticipated. Such groups featuring Doncic have outscored opponents by four points per 100 possessions, per Cleaning The Glass.)
Doncic diagnoses that this isn’t a permanent trap; it’s a delayed switch, with Doncic’s man turning to chase Wood — and other defenders sticking to Dallas’ shooters.
Wood is open — a wide receiver in need of a lead pass. Only a pass with the right speed, height, and touch has any chance. Even then, the space-time window might be too narrow. Doncic widens that window with an eye fake that freezes the key help defender — Romeo Langford, lurking from the left corner.
There are few NBA moments more thrilling than that single second when Doncic curves around a pick and pauses with a live dribble. No one builds more visceral drama from stasis. That second contains so many possibilities. Doncic holds the game in his hands. Defenders fret. Will one of them panic and lurch into the paint — exposing an open shooter? Will Doncic tilt the entire defense with one glance?
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This time, Doncic’s fallback is simpler: wait for his screener, Dwight Powell, to catch up and seal Zach Collins on one side of the basket. Doncic and Maxi Kleber have mastered this, and Powell has it down too.
The Mavs lost Jalen Brunson for nothing; could not make 3s for two months; are missing Kleber, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Josh Green; and are No. 4 in the West at 22-17 after Boston snapped their seven-game winning streak. Doncic belongs at or near the top of any MVP ladder.