Luka's Best Moments In Dallas

Usually, a player gets a greatest moments compilation for a team only when they’ve spent 10+ years with a franchise or won multiple rings for a team but for Luka Doncic, his 6 ½ seasons with Dallas were so spectacular that I won’t even have enough space to list them all.

Taking a moment to look back on some of the moments highlighting how Luka became such an “untouchable” player, and why his recent trade to the Lakers is so unbelievable.

Honorable Mentions: 73 points vs Hawks (2024), 11-0 run vs Rockets (2018), 50 on Christmas vs Suns (2023)

Game 7 vs. Phoenix (May 15, 2022)

After starting out the series down 0-2 and later down 2-3, the Mavericks were able to pull out a convincing Game 6 win at home and were headed to Phoenix to face the #1 seed Suns in Game 7.

Both teams were 0-3 on the road during this series, and everything was looking towards the Mavs going home after this one.

Alas, the day came and no one could’ve prepared what had happened.

Doncic out of the gate was a flamethrower, putting up 27 points in the first half on 9/12 from the field, and before they knew it, Phoenix was down 30… at halftime.

There would be little comeback as Doncic would end the game with 35 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists in what was possibly the biggest Game 7 blowout ever.

60-21-10 + OT Win vs Knicks (December 27, 2022)

Throughout this game, the Knicks would hold a small lead throughout as Doncic would try his hardest to close the gap to no avail.

Floater, middy, layup, three; unstoppable in the post getting second chance points off his own rebounds.

That would be until the 4th quarter when the Mavericks called a timeout down 9 with 44 seconds left. After the break, a combination of Luka, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Christian Wood’s flawless shooting would get the Mavs down 3 with Luka at the line shooting 2.

Doncic would sink the first, and with some Luka magic, purposefully miss the second, get his own rebound and with less than a second left make the putback to tie the game, sending it to OT.

The team would pull out the win in OT, Doncic’s final stat-line being 60 points, 21 rebounds, and 10 assists.

This game was a 47-minute masterclass on why Luka Doncic is one of the greatest offensive engines of all time, mind you he was 23 when he did this.

Game Winner vs Timberwolves in WCF (May 24, 2024)

After beating the #1 seed Thunder in the conference semis, Dallas was now facing the #3 seed Timberwolves, who had just taken down the reigning champs in Denver the previous round.

The Mavericks are up 1-0 and are looking to start the series undefeated before they go home for games 3&4.

The scene is Game 2, and the Mavs are down 2 and have the ball, Luka gets switched on by Rudy Gobert, the now 4x DPOY and with ice in his veins, nails a step back three with less than 3 seconds left.

Luka then tells Gobert something I can’t repeat and that would be all she wrote.

Dallas would go on to win the series 4-1 and move onto the Finals.

Chris Vadnais is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email cmv5562@psu.edu.