DALLAS — From the moment Kristaps Porzingis was acquired, officially on Jan. 31, 2019, Mavericks fans have dreamed, bragged and salivated about the potential dominance of the Luka Doncic-Porzingis Big Two.
There certainly have been teasers, glimpses of twin-tremendousness in the same game, but none quite as dual-dominant as Friday night in American Airlines Center.
Doncic scored a career-high 46 points and Porzingis scored 36 as the Mavericks outsprinted New Orleans, 143-130, earning their fourth straight victory while raining in a franchise-record 25 3-pointers.“I believe we’re on the right path,” said Porzingis, who pulled down seven rebounds and made a career-high eight 3-pointers, six of them in the first half. “And we’re going to keep working on that chemistry and making sure both of us are playing at a high level.”
It was a night of video game-like statistics, as young Pelicans star Zion Williamson scored a career-high 36 points on 15-of-16 shooting.
“Luka was phenomenal. KP was phenomenal. Williamson was ridiculous,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “The ESPN crowd got a real treat tonight in terms of entertainment, but it was a pillow-fight on defense.”
This was only the third time in their two seasons together that Doncic and Porzingis scored 30 or more points in the same game.
The other times were last March 4 against the Pelicans, when Porzingis scored 34 points and Doncic 30; and last Aug. 2, when Doncic scored 40 and Porzingis 30 against Phoenix in the Disney World bubble.
It was there, where Doncic and Porzingis were selected to the All-Seeding first team, where Porzingis says the duo showed their first true glimpse of what they can accomplish together offensively.
Before Friday, Doncic’s career-high was 42 points, accomplished three times. Friday night was his seventh career game of 40 or more points. He added 12 assists and eight rebounds. He has recorded double-digit assists in all of his 40-point games.
Eight days after suffering their sixth straight loss, the lowest point in a season of many lows, the Mavericks (13-14) have won five of their last six.
“We are rolling. That’s four in a row,” Doncic said. “We get paid to win these games.”
As for those concerns that Dallas’ defense-focused roster-retooling took too much air out of last season’s team, which set an NBA record for offensive efficiency, Dallas is averaging 128.8 points in its last five wins.
“We’re sharing the ball better,” Carlisle said. “We’re moving the ball better. We’re laying a more selfless brand of basketball.”
