One knock on Luka Doncic‘s Dallas Mavericks has been that the young scoring sensation Doncic doesn’t have enough help to drive the Mavs deep into the playoffs. Letting Jalen Brunson go to the Knicks — just when it looked like Brunson might be the second fiddle Dallas needed — has done little to quell the criticism.
Even Doncic’s amazing start to the season, matching at eight Wilt Chamberlain‘s second place mark for the number of consecutive 30-point games to start an NBA season, only adds to the notion that the Mavs are too reliant on Doncic.
Doncic’s league-leading 36 ppg? Another factor for worry, for those already prone. But the Mavs are 5-3 and it’s working so far, say those who believe Luka Magic can conjure a way to the title.
On election eve, Doncic will face Kevin Durant and the struggling Brooklyn Nets. Or at least a Nets team that was struggling — that is, before circumstances removed Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving from being able to play. (The criticism Durant has faced is not that, like Doncic, he’s doing too much — it’s that no matter what he’s done the Nets can’t seem to rise above mediocrity.)
But the absence of two of Brooklyn’s supposed Big 3 puts Durant in a position similar to that of Doncic. And he has responded with his own version of prestidigitation: call it KD-Magic, as the Nets are 2-0 with only one of their superstars playing.
Durant has been a monster all along, averaging 31.5 ppg this season, good for third highest in the NBA, but has done even more than score since he’s become the lone superstar.
Doncic and Durant, who meet in person in Dallas on Election Eve, have only Giannis Antetokounmpo sandwiched between them on the top scorers list. In Dallas, it is set to be a scoring scorcher between two of the NBA’s very best.
