Luka Doncic came back from a two-game absence on Monday as he led the Mavs to a 111-103 win over the Utah Jazz. The All-Star point guard was coming off a brief layoff due to a toe injury and he quickly made up for lost time on Monday.
Doncic looked really good against the Jazz and it didn't seem like he missed a single beat. The Mavs superstar dropped a game-high 35 points all over Donovan Mitchell and Co., to go along with 16 rebounds, seven assists, three steals, and a block. Luka also went 5-of-11 from distance to cap off another marvelous performance.
Mavs head coach Jason Kidd appears to be feeling a bit of concern with regard to Doncic's heavy workload. The 48-year-old shot-caller admitted that he'd like to cut down on Luka's minutes moving forward as the regular season winds down:
“What is it, 18, 17 games left?” Kidd said. “It’s getting the rotations down. And we’d like to get more guys involved here, Sterling (Brown) and Trey (Burke).
“We’ve been running the minutes for those eight to nine guys that we have been playing. So we want to get everybody involved and get some of the minutes down for Luka and Reggie. We’re playing Reggie over 40 minutes a night. So those are the things I’m looking at.”
Doncic is averaging a career-high 35.6 minutes per game right now and it's hard to deny that this is taking its toll on him. The good news for the Mavs is that this dude is just 23 and his body still remains to be relatively robust.
It sounds like coach Kidd is going to be reducing Luka's minutes for the rest of the way. It is unlikely that there's going to be a strict minutes limit imposed on the former Rookie of the Year, but based on his statement here, it does feel like Doncic is facing less playing time for the Mavs' remaining regular-season contests.
It is worth noting, however, that things continue to be very tight out West. Just four games separate the second-placed Warriors and the fifth-seeded Mavs. A Top 4 finish is definitely still within reach for Dallas, and this will be a major consideration for Jason Kidd moving forward.
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