Another night, another game, another jaw-dropping performance from Luka Doncic.

The second year star notched his sixth triple-double of the season with during a 117-110 Mavs win over the Spurs on Monday night.  This triple-double stood above the rest because the 42 point (career high), 12 assist, 11 rebound performance has only ever been matched by one other player when they had not yet turned 21 years old: LeBron James.

Here's every 20-year-old player ever with a 40-point triple-double:

LeBron
Luka

That's it. That's the list.@luka7doncic | #MFFL pic.twitter.com/aR0fkEUjgl

— x – Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) November 19, 2019

Even though the final score was close, it looked like Dallas would run away with this game for a large chunk of it. The Mavericks were able to burst out to a 36-22 lead after the first quarter thanks in large part to the box score stuffing from Doncic.  While playing virtually the entire first frame (11:45), Luka notched 17 points, four rebounds and four assists while knocking down four of six shots from beyond the arc.

17-point first quarter for @luka7doncic! #MFFL

📺: https://t.co/7x3eN7nERY pic.twitter.com/TlfiGirfl9

— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) November 19, 2019

In a particularly spicy stretch between the 5:33 and 3:02 marks of the quarter, Doncic hit three consecutive three pointers to get the AAC crowd up and out of their seat.  As a team, Dallas shot a nice 7-11 on three’s in the first quarter and that was definitely a welcomed site as the team had been shooting horrible from deep recently.

While the lead eventually got as high as 18 points, the Spurs ultimately were able to fight back into the game and keep it close all the way until the final minute thanks to 36 points from DeMar DeRozan and his midrange jumper clinic.  In the end, the night was dominated by feel good performances from Doncic and Dorian Finney-Smith, who notched a new career-high in points himself with 22 on 8-10 shooting from the field.

When asked about his thoughts about his Slovenian superstar’s performance after the game, coach Rick Carlisle did not shy away from heaping some praise onto the deserving 20 year old.

“I’m not surprised by it. This guy can do anything he wants on the basketball court, honestly. He’s having just one of those magical runs right now and it’s a phenomenal thing to watch, it’s a phenomenal thing to be a part of.”

Hard to argue with that, Coach. Pretty phenomenal indeed.

Extra Thoughts
After picking up four assists in over 26 minutes on Monday night, the Mavs now 4-0 when Seth Curry has three or more assists in a game this season. While Luka obviously doesn’t need to be set up to be a successful scorer, it would definitely help the Mavericks to have someone playing alongside him that is capable of creating shots for other people. Delon Wright’s minutes with Doncic have been less than most would have thought they’d be heading into the season, so Curry (a starter the last several games) is the more logical option to fill that roll at the moment.  The more spot-up three’s and less step-back three’s Luka can shoot, the better. Even if it doesn’t make as many highlight reels.

Outside of a hot streak from deep in the middle of the game, Kristaps Porzingis had a relatively solid, yet quiet game.  An 18 point, 10 rebound performance is about in line with what he is averaging in both categories for the season but he was able to shoot better from deep tonight by going 4-9 instead of the 1-7 effort he had against the Raptors on Saturday.

Now at 8-5 after their win on Monday night, the Mavs are off to their best start through 13 games since the 2015-2016 season. Of course that was their last playoff season.  Their records through 13 games the last three seasons were the following:

2018-2019: 5-8
2017-2018: 2-11
2016-2017: 2-11

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Dallas will look to continue their winning ways on this four game homestand with the third of four games coming against the mightily struggling Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN, so it is an early tip-off at 6:30 from the American Airlines Center.