DALLAS — Through his three-plus NBA seasons, Luka Doncic has developed a tendency to make even the most unflashy of jump shots historically significant, and that’s what happened, again, Monday night in the Mavericks’ 111-103 win over the Utah Jazz.
With less than three minutes remaining in the first quarter, the 23-year-old superstar let go a rather mundane mid-range fade from the left post.
Swish.
Another milestone complete.
The bucket bumped Doncic’s first-quarter total to 16 and his career scoring mark to, at the time, 6,466 points. He passed Jay Vincent (6,464 points) for 10th on the Mavericks’ all-time scoring list — already.
Doncic, however, was less concerned about personal accolades than he was with leading Dallas to victory in a game with major home-court playoff implications against a Jazz team it had lost to twice this season by a combined nine points.
Behind Doncic’s 35 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists, one block and three steals in 38 minutes, the fifth-place Mavericks (40-25) moved to just 0.5 games behind fourth-place Utah (40-24) in the West with 17 regular-season games remaining, including a March 27 rematch with the Jazz.
Winners in 11 of their last 13 games, the Mavericks have improved to 15 games above .500 for the first time since 2015, their last 50-win season.
Doncic often knocks his own speed and explosiveness on the court, but the pace at which he joined the franchise’s top-10 scorers made the feat even more impressive.
Vincent played 406 games from 1982-86 in his Dallas career.
Doncic bumped him from the upper echelon in just 248 games, a month shy of completing his fourth regular season.
Doncic, though, was focused just on the present Monday, and the Jazz — 10-2 in their last 12 games but on the second night of a back-to-back to cap a five-game road trip — became his latest victim.
After missing Saturday’s last-second win over Sacramento, Doncic returned from a left toe sprain to drop 16 points, four rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal while shooting 7 of 10 from the floor in the first quarter.
He shook his head at the Utah bench and smirked after drawing a couple of fouls — perhaps foreshadowing the chippiness to come.
Doncic drew a technical foul after the halftime buzzer.
As he argued a no-call on his off-balance look in the final seconds, All-Star center Rudy Gobert tossed the ball at Doncic. Soon, Doncic was skirmishing with Gobert and Utah’s Royce O’Neal as players from both sides gathered on the way to the locker room.
Officials announced the technical on Doncic after the break, marking his 13th of the season, three shy of the NBA’s automatic one-game suspension for 16 in the regular season.
Doncic and three-time Defensive Player of the year Gobert share a fraught recent history.
Gobert and the French national team beat Doncic and Slovenia with a game-winning block in the Olympic semifinal to advance to the gold-medal game in Tokyo. In the Mavericks’ Feb. 25 loss in Utah, Doncic missed his last six field-goal attempts in the final four minutes, failing to capitalize on several one-on-one matchups — and one incorrect no-call — against Gobert.
And late in the third quarter Monday, Gobert appeared to step on Doncic’s feet while watching a Doncic lob turn into a Dwight Powell dunk. As the two went to jog back on defense, Gobert clipped Doncic’s left foot and sent him tumbling to the court.
Doncic stood quickly, nodding his head as he walked away to a chorus of boos, but officials didn’t deem the play a hostile act after review.
To buoy Doncic’s production, Spencer Dinwiddie scored 23 points in his second consecutive start, this time for Jalen Brunson (right foot contusion), who missed just his second game this season and isn’t considered a long-term concern.
And Dorian Finney-Smith added 21 points, including a thunderous alley-oop dunk from Doncic in the final minute to cushion the Mavericks’ lead, and extended his career-best streak of scoring at least 15 points to four consecutive games.
A game after draining the game-winning 3-pointer against the Kings, Finney-Smith might’ve shined brightest on defense, holding All-Star Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell to 17 points on 5 of 19 from the floor in 35 minutes.
Over the last week, Finney-Smith has locked down LeBron James, Steph Curry and Domantas Sabonis, too.
Time for All-Defensive Team recognition? Doncic might not be the only one with big-time accomplishments looming.
