In the Dallas Mavericks' second game at the Chase Center this season on Sunday night, they found a way to pull out a wild win against the Golden State Warriors, by a score of 143-133.
The Mavericks are now 8-2 in their last 10 games and are only half a game behind the second seed, the Memphis Grizzlies, in the Western Conference standings.
Mavericks fans were anticipating to see Klay Thompson have a revenge game and get the win against his former team, which he indeed did. Thompson finished the game with 29 points, five rebounds, and four assists, and he shot an excellent 7-11 from behind the arc.
The story of the night though, was Luka Doncic. One week ago, the Mavericks had a rough loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Paycom Center, eliminating them from going to Las Vegas to have a shot to win the NBA Cup. In that game, Doncic struggled to get into a flow on both ends of the floor as the Thunder were seemingly fully focused on shutting him down, but it seemed like he flipped the switch on Sunday.
Luka Doncic proves he belongs in MVP conversations
In the win against Golden State, Doncic finished with 45 points, 13 assists, 11 rebounds, three steals, and two blocks and shot an absurdly efficient 16-23 from the floor.
In his six games played in the month of December, he is averaging a near triple-double as he is putting up 30.8 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 9.3 assists per game. The Mavericks are also 5-1 in that span of games.
With Doncic having a slower start to the season than usual, it had seemed like fans had initially forgotten that Doncic was and always will be an MVP-caliber player and candidate. It's safe to say that now people are getting reminded of the true player he is.
Although Doncic is known for his offensive capabilities when it comes to scoring and facilitating, what really has stood out lately is his defense. In his last six games, he's averaging 3.3 steals per game and is focused on being better on that end of the floor for the overall well-being of the team.
According to Stat Defender on X (formerly known as Twitter), Doncic is also fourth in the NBA when it comes to giving up the fewest points per possession when guarding ISOs (0.65). His teammate, P.J. Washington, leads the NBA in this stat as well (0.48). Doncic has also been one of the best when it comes to steals and deflections per game.
The NBA world is finally starting to remember that Doncic is one of the best, if not the best scorer in the league. He's slowly starting to prove that he can be a trustworthy two-way player for Dallas, and this is exactly what the Mavs need out of him.
His slow start to the season has been fully forgotten among Mavs fans, and now he is playing like the MVP-type player that fans know him to be. Doncic getting fully healthy has allowed him to get back into the swing of things, and as the weeks go on, we should see his name reappear in MVP conversations considering how well Dallas is playing.
