The All-Star weekend festivities in Cleveland are set to tip-off in less than 24 hours. However, before we get to that gold at the end of the rainbow, we still had one game day left. In any other league, no one would focus on these games when the all-star weekend is tomorrow. But when Luka Doncic puts on a show as he did against the Pelicans, you get a reminder why even regular-season games are pure entertainment.
Before entering the game tonight no one believed the 12th seed Pelicans to win against the 5th seed Dallas. However, both these teams have made huge trades that have changed their image. Getting CJ McCollum for the Pelicans would only make their team better. McCollum has been averaging 26 points per game since the trade and scored 38 points tonight. But because Brandon Ingram decided to be awful today, the Mavericks took the win.
Luka Doncic is a man among boys
The Luka-Porzingis era in Dallas failed. What Mark Cuban once thought as the regeneration of Nash and Dirk is now diminished. They now have a great guard in Dinwiddie to lead the bench unit. Tonight, however, he scored just 8 points because of his extremely passive play.
Luka dominated in New Orleans ???? pic.twitter.com/BDcaJkmUMQ
— NBA TV (@NBATV) February 18, 2022
Luka Doncic had to pick up the load for Dallas, something he’s very accustomed to. He scored a monstrous 49 points, 15 rebounds, 8 assists, and one block on 50% shooting from the 3. He just used the moves that he had in his bag. Doncic consistently dominated on his isolation matchups and hit his elite step back to get a huge chunk of his scoring. Even though you knew what he would do, there was no humane way to stop him.
Seeing such explosions of scoring from All-Star Luka Doncic is never a rarity. He’s averaging a near triple-double this season with 27 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists which have even amounted to wins. This form is exactly what Team LeBron needs getting into the All-star game. As great of a talent, Luka Doncic is, for some reason you do not see it in the All-star game. However, scoring 49 points in the game right before the break is a good sign.