MY ACCOUNT
Luka Doncic maintained his record-breaking pace as he broke into the top 10 scorers in Dallas Mavericks history on Monday.
Doncic, still just 23 and in only his fourth season in the NBA, scored 35 against the Utah Jazz to move to 6,485 points in a Mavs uniform, nudging ahead of Jay Vincent (6,464) into 10th place.
The Slovenian has reached that mark in just 248 games, with only eight NBA players scoring more at this stage of their careers since 1963-64 – essentially a who’s who of the sport’s greatest names, including Michael Jordan (8,023), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (7,896), Shaquille O’Neal (6,766) and LeBron James (6,593).
Only among Mavs players, nobody can match Doncic, with Mark Aguirre (6,169) the sole other to pass 6,000 points within 250 games. Unsurprisingly, Doncic’s 26.1 career points per game lead all-time Mavs players.
“There’s some great scorers on that list,” coach Jason Kidd – who is 15th (5,258) – said after the win against the Jazz.
“To do it in less than four years… that’s pretty impressive. Kudos to him. He’s special, and he showed it tonight.”
Doncic is scoring 28.0 points per game this season – good for fifth in the NBA, as Joel Embiid’s 29.7 points lead the way.
After a slow start, the Mavs superstar has accelerated up the standings in his past 15 games, averaging 34.1 points as well as 10.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists.
Since the 1976-77 merger, the only other players to average 34 points, eight rebounds and eight assists over a 15-game span have been Jordan and Russell Westbrook.
Doncic told reporters he was not aware of breaking into the Mavs’ top 10 but said of the scoring pace that put him there: “Is it good? Could be better, right? Could be better.”
