DALLAS – Luka Doncic showed why he is a strong candidate to win this season’s NBA Rookie of the Year award.
Doncic completely took over Saturday’s game in crunch time, scoring 11 consecutive points and leading the Dallas Mavericks to a hard-fought 107-104 victory over the Houston Rockets before an American Airlines Center sellout of 20,254.
It was the 11th win in their last 15 games for the Mavs and padded their overall record to 13-11. Meanwhile, the Rockets are 0-2 against the Mavs this season and dropped to 11-14.
Houston led 102-94 with just 3:09 left and appeared well on its way to carving out a victory. But Doncic drilled a trio of 3-pointers and added another basket in the lane in traffic and the Mavs won for the ninth straight time at home, equaling their longest home winning streak since they also won nine consecutive home games in January of 2011.
The performance by Doncic was awe-inspiring considering he was just 3-of-13 from the field and only had 10 points before that late-game eruption.
“I wasn’t playing great,” said Doncic, who wound up with 21 points, seven rebounds and three steals. “My game wasn’t good at all, but I had confidence at the end of the game.
”I just hit a couple of good shots, and that’s it.”
The Mavs beg to differ.
“That was insane!” center DeAndre Jordan said of Doncic’s show-stopping performance. “He hit a lot of shots and I’m like, ‘Nah, nah, no way!’ But we’ve seen him do it before.
“It just happened so fast and so many plays back-to-back like that, it was amazing. When he’s playing like that were tough.”
And on Saturday, when the game was still hanging in the balance, the Mavs showed the type of fight they’ve shown all season at home. And that came thanks to Doncic.
“It was something special, coach Rick Carlisle said of Doncic. “It is pretty clear that he has a special flare for the moment and he is not afraid.
“You don’t see that every day and it was a unique three or four minutes that he put together at the end.”
Rookie Jalen Brunson started in place of injured point guard Dennis Smith Jr, who missed his second consecutive game with a sprained right wrist. Brunson, in his second career start, responded with a career-high 14 points, three assists and three steals and was 7-of-9 from the field.
“I just found ways to make plays, not just for myself but for others,” Brunson said. “I’m just finding ways to change the game from being active on defense, getting in the passing lanes and finding ways to make everyone better.”
Also for the Mavs, Wesley Matthews tallied 21 points and Jordan dominated the boards and finished with 12 points, 20 rebounds and two steals.
“I thought that Deandre Jordan was the key to the game,” Carlisle said. “You can talk about what Luka did down the stretch, but DJ gave us a consistent and strong-willed paint presence the entire night. It was an amazing effort tonight.
“The effort was there with him in every play tonight. You don’t get there in a game like this without your big guy having that kind of presence and strong will.”
Certainly, Doncic also had that kind of presence and strong will in the latter stages of Saturday’s game.
“Luka, he willed us at the end of this game,” Jordan said. “He took a lot of big shots, a lot of shots that guys wouldn’t take, and we needed him to be aggressive like that.”