On Friday evening, Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks hit the road to take on Trae Young in the Atlanta Hawks in a battle of the two participants in the famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask), 2018 Draft Night trade. The Mavs were playing without star guard Kyrie Irving in this one, leading some to speculate that Doncic's numbers might go up a bit without his backcourt running mate in the lineup.

However, few could have anticipated just how much Doncic's numbers would inflate against the Hawks, as the Mavs superstar poured in an astonishing 41 points in just the first half alone, on a blistering 16-21 shooting from the field.

In fact, so impressive was Doncic's first half performance that he set a Mavs franchise record for the most points in a single half, passing up franchise icon Dirk Nowitzki in the process, who had held the previous record of 34 points since November 3rd, 2009 in the second half against the Utah Jazz, per Mavs PR on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. Doncic's outburst was just the 15th 40 or more point half in the last 25-plus years of NBA history, per Mavs PR.

The explosion is just the latest example of just what an incredibly gifted talent Doncic is with the basketball in his hands. While they're still ironing out some things, the Mavs have looked much better this year so far than they did in the disastrous 2022-23 campaign, which ended with the team missing the Play In game altogether.