On Tuesday it was Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns.
On Saturday, it was Luka Doncic and Devin Booker’s turn to step up, marking just the fifth time in league history that two players have scored 60 points or more on the same day.
As was the case for Embiid and Towns, it was contrasting fortunes for Doncic and Booker’s teams with the Mavs making the most of their superstar’s historic night but the same wasn’t true for the Suns.
Doncic had 73 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists as Dallas outlasted Atlanta 148-143 while Booker scored 62 points in Phoenix’s 133-131 loss to Indiana.
Doncic joined Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant and David Thompson in the record books as just the fourth player to reach 73 points while he was the 10th to hit 70 points.
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While all eyes were understandably on Doncic it was also a big game for Australian Josh Green, who scored a season-high 21 points while Dante Exum had a few handy shots off the bench.
Doncic set a new franchise record for points in a single half, racking up 41 to pass Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, who in 2009 had put up 34 points in the second half of a game.
It was also the third-most points by any NBA player in a half in the play-by-play era (since 1996-97), only sitting behind Karl-Anthony Towns (44 in 2024) and Kobe Bryant (42 in 03).
It was a highly efficient 41 points from Doncic too, who made 16 of 21 field goal attempts including five 3-pointers, to go with five rebounds and four assists.
While it had been the Doncic show in the opening half it wasn’t actually enough to give Dallas the lead, instead heading into the locker room level at 66-all with Atlanta.
Bogdan Bogdanovic, who has been the subject of trade speculation, was leading the way for the Hawks with 15 points, three rebounds and two assists.
Trae Young, meanwhile, had 11 points and six assists while Jalen Johnson, who is also believed to be untouchable ahead of the trade deadline, had 11 points.
Devin Harris, who spent nine of his 15 NBA seasons in Dallas, was surprised at the ease in which Doncic scored against the Atlanta defence given running mate Kyrie Irving was sidelined.
“He followed up an All-Star nod with an All-Star type performance in that first half,” Harris said on Bally Sports Southwest.
“An efficient 16 from 21, only missing three 3s — just really taking it upon himself to really carry this team offensively in the first half. [The team] got off to a slow start, he did not and just started knocking down shots left and right.
“I’m sort of curious from the Hawks perspective with no Kai I expected more double teams and trying to take the ball out of his hands a little bit. He’s too gifted to allow him to play one-on-one and allow him to get in-rhythm shots and when you play him one-on-one he can dominate you in big stretches and we saw that in the first half.”
The expectation was that the Hawks would rectify that by double-teaming Doncic more in the third quarter to force other players to produce but instead the Slovenian superstar picked up where he left off, draining an early 3-pointer.
Doncic was getting some help, most notably from Green, who continues to flash much-improved confidence shooting corner 3s while also driving towards the rim with aggression, which has opened up his game as a whole.
The highlight came midway through the first quarter breezed past Saddiq Bey, showing no hesitation as he attacked the rim and finished with an emphatic reverse jam.
“Josh Green has been that supporting cast you were looking for,” former Mavericks player Derek Harper said in commentary.
Green had an early 3-pointer to open the third quarter and added another bucket soon after before then dishing it out for Tim Hardaway Jr. to drain one from deep, which saw Dallas start to push away and open up a 83-76 lead.
Green had a pass picked off by Young and went back to the bench soon after but was reintroduced to the game minutes later and had an immediate impact on both sides of the floor.
First Green fought for a contested defensive rebound, tipping the ball forward and then showed tremendous court vision to find Jalen Hardy for the transition dunk.
That put the Mavs ahead 89-81 and while a Bogdanovic bucket saw the Hawks hit back right away it was only a matter of seconds before Doncic drained another 3-pointer to add to his personal tally.
“He’s making it look easy,” Harper said.
Dallas called a timeout at that point, leading 92-83 and that quickly became an 11-point buffer after a Green layup as the Australian built on one of his best games of the season.
Injuries and inconsistent minutes have at times limited Green’s confidence but the 23-year-old has been thriving lately, improving his 3-point shooting and general involvement across the board.
Speaking of injuries, Exum (heel) recently returned and scored the last five points of the third quarter for Dallas as Atlanta started to close the gap with Doncic going to the bench.
The Exum burst put the Mavs ahead 108-102 heading into the final quarter as Doncic returned to the action on 57 points.
Doncic was quick to get back to work as he scored Dallas’ first eight points of the period, including an extraordinary 3-pointer that at this rate looked ordinary for the Mavs superstar.
“They are seeing something that they will never forget, that we will never forget… let Luka Doncic cook,” Mark Followill said in commentary.
Even when Doncic wasn’t scoring he was attracting all kinds of attention from the Hawks, defence, passing to Green who then found a wide-open Hardaway Jr. for a 3-pointer.
Doncic then aggressively finished through contact for an and-3 to bring up 70 points, letting out a roar as he seemingly had the Mavericks destined for victory.
His teammates though couldn’t finish the job, with a few missed buckets opening the door for the Hawks who rallied to get it to 137-133 with 90 seconds left on the clock.
A selfless Doncic later passed up a possible 3-pointer to add to his historic performance, instead finding Exum with a better look and the Australian made no mistake.
As had been the case late in the fourth, Atlanta refused to go away but the Mavs kept making buckets down the stretch too.
First a dialled-in Doncic once again aggressively drove towards the rim for the and-1 before Green capped off an impressive night with a 3-pointer to push the Dallas lead out to 146-138.
“Green has stepped up in a big way,” Harper said.
A late 3-pointer saw the Hawks get within three points with a few seconds on the clock but Hardaway Jr. made both free throws after he was fouled to leave the final score at 148-143.
BOOKER’S BIG NIGHT SOURED BY SUNS LOSS
Doncic’s masterclass slightly overshadowed another standout performance from Suns guard Booker, who erupted for 62 points in Phoenix’s 133-131 loss to the Indiana Pacers.
Booker, who has scores of 46 and 52 in his last five games, had a career-high 29 points in the opening quarter alone after shooting 10-for-14 from the field, including four 3-pointers.
It tied the most points in any quarter in the NBA this season after Joel Embiid put up 29 against the Wizards in the third quarter last November while it also marked the league’s highest-scoring first quarter since Kevin Love scored 34 against Portland in 2016.
Booker cooled down a bit in the second with eight points and an assist after getting a five-minute rest but the Suns superstar was quick to pile on more points in the third.
Booker had 15 points in the period while also dishing out a few assists as the Suns took a 114-105 lead into the fourth, with the 27-year-old sitting to open the quarter as Kevin Durant entered the game.
Indiana was able to cut the deficit to six points before Booker was brought back into the game and made a driving layup to add to his tally, scoring six of Phoenix’s next nine points.
But after scoring 40 points in the first two quarters of the game, the Suns managed just 17 points in the fourth as the Pacers stormed home to snatch the win despite Booker’s heroics.
New addition Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 31 points, seven rebounds and two steals while Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard each had 22 points.
The Pacers also got plenty of production off the bench, with Obi Toppin scoring 23 points to go with 11 rebounds while Jalen Smith had 13 points and 10 boards.
Elsewhere, Jaren Jackson scored 30 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Memphis Grizzlies, who saw a double-digit lead evaporate but held on for a 107-106 victory over the Orlando Magic.
Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points to propel the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 112-100 victory over the Bucks in Milwaukee.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 22 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and handed out nine assists — coming up just shy of a third straight triple-double.
Damian Lillard added another 22 points for Milwaukee, who confirmed that Doc Rivers — who guided Boston to the 2008 NBA title — would take over as head coach after the abrupt sacking of Adrian Griffin.
Assistant Joe Prunty had stood in as interim coach for two games, the first a win over Cleveland that ended the Cavs’ eight-game winning streak on Wednesday.
— With AFP
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