DALLAS _ On his last night as a teenager, Luka Doncic teamed with a familiar Mavericks face, Dirk Nowitzki, to lead Dallas to a surprising home victory over a solid Indiana team.
Doncic finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists as the Mavericks broke a five-game losing streak with a 110-101 victory Wednesday night at American Airlines Center.
Nowitzki, making his first home start of the season, had 11 points and five rebounds in 22 minutes, continuing his recent surge at age 40.
And to think: Doncic in many respects is just getting started. He turns 20 on Thursday.
"Finally," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle deadpanned.
"He's finally losing his teenageinity," mused Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, adding that his greatest accomplishment by age 20 was acing graduate-school business classes into which he was sneaking at Indiana University.
"But I didn't have four triple-doubles," Cuban said.
There have been many outstanding rookie seasons during the NBA's 72-year history, but, statistically speaking, Doncic's teenage and rookie feats have placed him in historic company.
If he maintains or improves his current averages of 20.9 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists, he will join Oscar Robertson (1960-61) as the only rookies to average at least 20 points, 7 rebounds and five assists.
Doncic has four of the five NBA triple-doubles ever recorded by a teenager. The other was by Philadelphia's Markelle Fultz. Doncic also is the only teen to record two games of at least 35 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
And when Doncic in January had four straight games of at least 25 points, five rebounds and five assists, he became the first rookie to do so since Michael Jordan in 1984-85.
Rare air, indeed.
"He's had a remarkable season, a lot of impact, really, on the entire game," Carlisle said before Wednesday's game, adding "but I have a hard time getting into conversations about stats when we've lost five in a row."
Carlisle's comment wasn't meant as a slight to Doncic, but the subject of winning certainly is relevant when ranking the NBA's best rookie seasons.
With 21 games remaining, the Mavericks already have three more victories than last season's 24-58 team mustered all season. In terms of win-loss impact, though, Doncic's first year will fall well short of other rookie-led single-season turnarounds.
The 1997-98 Spurs with rookie Tim Duncan registered a 36-victory improvement. Of course, it helped that he was paired with a fellow named David Robinson, who played only six games the previous season due to back and foot injuries.
The 1989-90 Spurs, in Robinson's first season, improved by 35 wins, but Robinson had plenty of help in fellow rookie Sean Elliott and veteran addition Terry Cummings.
The 1979-80 Celtics improved by 32 victories in Larry Bird's rookie year, and the 1969-70 Bucks improved by 29 victories behind rookie Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Of more recent vintage, perhaps the closest comparison that can be made to the Mavericks of this season is the 2003-04 Cleveland team, behind James, who improved from 17 victories to 35.
"It's too early for that (comparison)," Cuban said. "We just got rid of 80-percent of our starting lineup (before the trade deadline). ... We're still figuring out how we're going to play everybody."
Still, Cuban said, there are similarities to the Cavs of 15 years ago and this season's Mavs.
"It's not like I watched him because he was a teenager back then and really have a frame of reference," Cuban said of James. "It's great accomplishments for both of them. LeBron came in with a ton of pressure, had to perform and was in a similar circumstance as we are."
The Cavaliers improved to 42 victories in James' second season, but didn't make the playoffs until his third season, winning 52 games and making the conference semifinals.
"Hopefully it won't take us that long," Cuban said.
Doncic's rapid ascension as a franchise-caliber point guard both compelled and enabled the Mavericks to fast-track the building process by acquiring Kristaps Porzingis and clearing $30 million in salary cap space for this summer.
"Coach (Carlisle) has said this: We're trying to teach Luka how to carry a team," Cuban said. "That's the best way to put it. That's a process. There's times when you can get him learn from his mistakes and keep him out there, or you can pull him _ and we're letting him learn from his mistakes.
"We still want to win every game possible; this isn't last year by a long shot. But now we've got something to build on, whereas last year we weren't sure what we had to build on."
Above all, finally up-and-coming Mavericks are building upon a generational player who as of midnight Wednesday lost his teenageinity.
