NEW ORLEANS _ Hours after being anointed Western Conference Player of the Month, Luka Doncic continued his torridness Tuesday night at Smoothie King Center and in front of a TNT national audience.
The poor New Orleans Pelicans, still without injured Zion Williamson, became the latest Doncic and Mavericks victims, by a score of 118-97.
Doncic finished with 33 points, a career-high 18 rebounds and five assists _ all in three quarters _ as the Mavericks (14-6) completed a three-game road trip sweep and improved their road record to 8-2, including 7-0 against Western Conference teams.
To Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, though, Doncic's continued dominance is just part of what he views as a beautifully gelling Mavericks team that has won eight of nine games since that now-fateful night of Nov. 14, when it lost its second game to the Knicks and fell to 6-5.
"A lot of it stems from Luka because he's always got the ball in his hands, but it only works if everybody knows what to do," Cuban said. "In the process, everybody else is giving up stats to do what we need to do. That, to me, is as impressive as anything."
Cuban rattled off the names of all the Mavericks contributors, but especially singled out the Maverick who in the minds of many Dallas fans, at least judging from social media, has struggled as Doncic's co-star.
"I think the most underappreciated change has been K.P," Cuban said of Kristaps Porzingis. "I don't there's ever been a max-out player like that, who has changed his game to fit what's needed for the team, as quickly as K.P. has. Literally starting with the Toronto game."
The Nov. 16 home win over the Raptors started this nine-game run in which Dallas has outscored opponents by an average of 16 points per game.
After the Mavericks opened this trip with a win at Phoenix, a game in which Porzingis scored only two points but contributed 13 rebounds and three blocks, Cuban made a point to find his $158 million power forward.
"I went up to him and said, 'Thank you. I've never seen as much impact, as much of a changing of a game, from someone who just scored two points,'" Cuban said. "And he's doing it all the time."
Tuesday night, Porzingis scored seven points, blocked five shots and pulled down five rebounds in just 18 foul-plagued minutes. Perhaps the low minutes total will allow Porzingis to play in Wednesday night's home game against Minnesota. He sat out the second game of Dallas' only other back-to-back so far this season.
"I think so," Porzingis said of perhaps playing Wednesday. "I hope so."
Doncic became the first Maverick to win Player of the Month since Dirk Nowitzki in April of 2009. At 20, he is the youngest winner since the NBA began giving the award to players in each conference in 2001-2002.
This was the 16th straight game in which Doncic totaled at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists, tying him with Russell Westbrook (2017-18) for the third-longest such streak in NBA history.
The only longer such streaks are Westbrook's 17 in 2014-15 and Michael Jordan's 18 straight during the 1988-89 season.
