Luka Magic ? Luka Magic ! At home on Wednesday night to welcome the tired Raptors, the franchise player from Dallas came out of his box to offer what can be considered his best game of the season. A masterclass with 41 points, 14 rebounds and 7 assists while clutching, to offer the Mavs a 10th victory in the last 11 games. Texans are hot.
Like a smirk, with an ounce of nostalgia.
Oh, he’s back.
Not that we want to start coming out with profanity, like Mavericks winning streak ends abruptly”>Luka Doncic is having a shitty season and not worth mentioning for the 2022 All-Star Game, but in fact, the Slovenian prodigy was below its standards. One step less on his movements, clumsy on his shots, with 43% success in shooting including 29% at three-pointers, we really wondered where the kid was who had splashed the League in his first professional seasons. There was no real doubt as to the capacity of the guy to find his best level, and in the management of Dallas they advocated patience rather than concern, but some fans frowned when they saw the bad evenings. chain. Lately ? Between Covid and physical glitches, Luka quite simply offered us a hideous 39% in the January shoot, including 17% (!) from the parking lot, enough to make observers really cough. No, clearly something was wrong and we wondered when it was going to come back.
The answer, we got it last night.
Will it be a shooting star, or the start of great things? The future will tell. But Toronto can confirm that Doncic, the real Doncic, was back on Wednesday night, in a game dominated as only he knows how to do. Of course, like the excellent recent results of the Mavericks, this success was not acquired solely by the performances of the kid fan of stepback. Kristaps Porzingis, barely back, confirmed his good form despite frustrating loss of balls (18 points and 7 rebounds). Tim Hardaway Jr, who was whispered in transfer rumors, sent the sauce off the bench (16 points). And without being able to count on so many other options, since the impact of Jalen Brunson was limited on this meeting, the defense of the Mavs which one praised recently put back the covers. Box on Fred VanVleet to make him leave his comfort zones (4/20 in the shoot), physical game on the rebound to avoid offering second chances, Dallas basketball as we have seen for a few weeks and which requires not a lot of opponents on particularly frustrating evenings in attack. Another opponent maintained below the 100 point mark, the 8th since January 1, it begins to make armies who must lay down their weapons in the racket of the Mavs. Toronto was in the game, however, and even if VanVleet missed his meeting, a big killer shot in the money-time was perhaps going to save the Canadians from great disillusionment. Fatigue fills the ranks of Nick Nurse, but a small point lead at 1:55 from the end of the match, maybe it will pass…
… or not.
A wonderful spin move in Luka Doncic’s racket gave his people a point lead, before the Dallas public exploded on his special: the three-point step back on the famous left side, the one the Clippers remember well, in front of a disillusioned Toronto bench. Time-outs, a four-point lead for the Mavs, and a celebration of the kid in front of star-studded cameras. On this move, his killer signature in money time, we couldn’t help but let this sentence come out with joy: yes, he is the Luka we know. Because it was here an exclamation point on a performance of MVP, the size of the player and the expectations that we have around him. The last time he had exceeded 30 points? It was late November against Washington. And since that game? He had only once planted more than 4 three-point shots in a meeting. We were not entitled to our gift, to the Luka who made us dream so far, which did not prevent Dallas from keeping its place in the top of the West. And this kind of performance like this night against the Raptors can only give us smiles and ambitions for the second half of the season, the famous MFFL fans closely observing the fall of the Jazz with a real possibility of climbing up the rankings. And why not aim for a Top 4 in the Western Conference? With a solid defense, a Doncic who must confirm and Porzingis on two legs, everything is possible. First confirmation test against Phoenix this Thursday evening, in a match that will smell good and bring back memories to supporters of both teams. Suffice to say that Doncic, sparkling tonight, and Booker, monstrous in San Antonio, will be expected at the turn.
Dallas narrowly gets away with it, but Dallas still gets away with it. Is Luka Doncic the dominant superstar version back? This is the big question that the interested party will have to answer. This is also a question that many opponents ask themselves. Because if the crack starts his nonsense again with defensively dominant Mavs, watch out for the second half of the Texans season…
