After a somewhat slow start to the 2020-21 NBA season, Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic is back to his usual self. On Monday, the 21-year-old phenom from Slovenia went deep in his bag of tricks and showcased his full arsenal against the Houston Rockets to lead the Mavs to a 113-100 win.
Head coach Rick Carlisle told the media that Doncic's condition was definitely off to start the season. However, he's certainly glad now that Luka Magic seems to be back and ready to roll.
“His preparation schedule was thrown off, and he just got behind the curve. It's pretty clear now that he's working his way back to where he needs to be,” Carlisle said after the Mavs' W over the Rockets on Monday, via Callie Caplan of Dallas Morning News).
Luka Doncic had to sit out Dallas' game against the Chicago Bulls on Sunday due to a left quad contusion which, based on how things turned out on Monday, worked out just fine for the third-year point guard.
Luka notched his first triple-double of the season against the Rockets with a monster stat line of 33 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists. He now has the most career triple-doubles in NBA history before turning 22 with a total of 26.
Most career triple-doubles before turning 22:
26 — Luka Doncic
25 — Next 2 players combined (Magic Johnson, Ben Simmons) pic.twitter.com/OqBGlMux3I— StatMuse (@statmuse) January 5, 2021
After an unprecedented latter half of the 2019-20 NBA season which ended in October, no one really knew the exact starting date for the season. A lot were expecting it to start early this 2021, but the league decided to start right before Christmas, making last year's offseason one of the shortest in recent history.
With a shortened 72-game season, Doncic might have to ramp up their conditioning and go to a higher gear sooner than he might have wanted if he wants to bring the Mavs back to the playoffs this season.
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