Luka Doncic Bounces Back As Dallas Takes Pivotal Game Five On The Road

Luka Donic is hurt.

Last night, TNT shared a graphic detailing an albatross of his ailments: right knee sprain, left knee soreness, back soreness and left Achilles soreness. During timeouts, he places an ice pack the size of a backpack on his upper body and another on his left bag, making him look more like the Michelin Man than an NBA assassin.

For most humans, that means two weeks in bed and a six-month recovery time.

For Doncic, it meant a 31-point triple-double, which sent Dallas to the brink of the Western Conference Finals and stunned the Oklahoma City crowd.

Back on their home floor, the Thunder raced out to an early 8-2 advantage two minutes into the game. Dallas responded minutes later with a 9-0 run. The teams traded jabs to start the first quarter, and the Mavericks held a slender two-point lead at the end of the first.

The separation of the sides began in the second as Doncic poured it on inside the Paycom Center. The European contributed 17 of the Maverick’s 30 points in the period with 4-6 shooting and four assists as Dallas took a 54-44 lead into the break.

Dallas continued to hound Oklahoma City on the perimeter as the Thunder could not muster much offense after halftime. OKC scored just 23 points in the third, slightly better than the 22 they put up in the first and second. Shai Gilgeous-Alexender did all he could to keep his team in it, but the MVP candidate received little help. Only one Thunder player scored over 12 points, and the Mavs won the assist battle 27-20. The stagnant offense allowed Dallas’s lead to swell by as much as 15 midway through the quarter as Doncic sunk another three.

The Thunder trailed by 12 going into the final frame, but Doncic scored on back-to-back-to-back possessions at the beginning of the quarter, putting the Mavs up 18. The game seemed finished, but credit OKC for battling back. A Chet Holmgren dunk cut the lead to seven as the Thunder roared back with a 12-1 run and scored on four straight possessions.

That was the closest they would get.

On the ensuing possession, Doncic dished to P.J. Washington, and the big man splashed in a three. The Thunder’s offense dried up, and they did not score for over three minutes before Gilgeous-Alexander hit a mid-range jumper as his team trailed 99-88 with 1:45 to go. Dallas made their free throws down the stretch, something they did not do the game before, and stole game five on the road 104-92. Doncic dominated, but four other Mavericks players entered double figures as their team effort put Oklahoma City on the brink. Now, a young Thunder team must go on the road and grind out a victory in Dallas to force a game seven back on their home floor.