A few days after Joel Embiid scored 70 points against the San Antonio Spurs, Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks dropped 73 against the Atlanta Hawks. Both feats drew comparisons to Wilt Chamberlain, who holds the record for points in a game with 100. Wilt also tallied more than 70 points a full six times, but he was not the first to hit the mark.
During the 1960-61 season, Elgin Baylor of the Los Angeles Lakers scored 71 on the New York Knicks, shooting 58.3 from the field and grabbing 25 rebounds. Baylor held the record for 472 days before Wilt rang up 78 against the Lakers. The 70-plus point club also includes David Thompson, David Robinson, Kobe Bryant, Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, Damian Lillard, Joel Embiid, and now Luka Doncic, and there’s another back story here.
The Mavericks were on a losing streak and fans had been telling Doncic to “get on the treadmill.” That call rang out in Atlanta, and Luka had the answer. He was 25 of 33 from the field, 8 for 13 on 3-pointers, sank 15 of 16 free throws, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out 7 assists. As he said, they needed to win the game. The Mavericks’ star has also pulled off a 60-point triple double in the course of topping Dirk Nowitzki’s franchise record of 53, but Luka is not known just for scoring.
Hear Reggie Miller make the call on Luka’s left-hand wraparound pass to Dante Exum, who returned the favor by drilling a three-pointer. Check out Luka, trapped in the corner by two Indiana Pacers, make a cross-court pass to Jaden Hardy, who promptly hit the shot. Or how about the left-hand between-the-legs pass to Maxi Kleber for dunk, one of 19 assists for Luka, who can also make the high-percentage shot.
Check out this in-traffic slam against the Trail Blazers, and this put-back dunk over Dwight Howard. See Luka throw down a selection of crossover dunks and grown-man dunks. As Chris Webber said, if you sleep on Luka’s hops you might wake up on a poster.
Doncic has been criticized as “slow,” which means the pace that works best for him. Nobody can make him go anywhere on the court he doesn’t want to go. Luka has been a professional since the age of 13, playing for Real Madrid’s under-16 team that year and named MVP of the Spanish championships, repeating the feat for the under-18 team. At 18 he was dominating grown men and at 19 he moved to the NBA.
This year Luka Doncic is averaging 33.6 points, 8.8 rebounds and 9.3 assists per game. He hasn’t won an NBA title but fans haven’t seen a player like this for some time. Since Luka can obviously play with anybody, it might be fun to put him on an all-time dream squad. How about Luka and Michael Jordan at guard, with Wilt Chamberlain at center and Karl Malone and Larry Bird at forward. Or possibly. . .
