NEW ORLEANS — Gas up the private plane and prep the Cleveland hotel suite.
Luka Doncic is ready for another All-Star Weekend.
In the Mavericks final outing before the NBA’s All-Star break, Doncic led the Mavericks’ 125-118 win Thursday night against the Pelicans with 49 points, 15 rebounds, eight assists and one block in 38 minutes.
He celebrated 3-pointers in the first quarter with gallops and an emphatic “count it” motion at the period’s buzzer. He tormented the Pelicans’ bigs in the paint. He shot 17 of 35 from the floor and 7 of 14 from the field.
The Mavericks’ defense, in turn, ensured a few of Doncic’s lapses in the last minutes — a turnover in a trap defense that led to an easy Pelicans layup and two missed foul shots afterward — didn’t overshadow his otherwise stellar performance in victory.
A week after dropping a career-high 51 points, Doncic turned in his third game of at least 45 points in the Mavericks’ last four. Only Steph Curry has logged three 45-plus-point games in all of 2021-22.
Surging at an MVP-level over the last month, Doncic appeared in prime form to dazzle again Sunday night alongside the game’s other greats.
Before a shootaround Thursday morning in Smoothie King Center, coach Jason Kidd cautioned his team against a lapse in focus with a week-long All-Star break vacation looming after their post-game flight back to Dallas.
New Orleans entered the game out of playoff — and even play-in tournament — standing. Dallas played without six of their 16 players, including starter Reggie Bullock (left hip contusion) because of day-to-day injuries.
Kidd highlighted the outing as a “culture” moment to gauge his young core’s maturity.
Doncic had no problem staying engaged.
During shootaround — about eight hours before the game — he became so miffed that he missed a half-court shot in a contest against coaches that he punted a ball to the top of the arena’s lower bowl.
A pregame nap and down time didn’t sap his verve, either.
He tallied 19 points, five rebounds, four assists and one steal in all 12 first-quarter minutes and entered halftime with his third 25-point half in the last four games.
He hit four of his first five 3-pointers but played with an aggressive, drive-first style that benefitted the Mavericks’ small lineup.
Early in the game, the Pelicans’ frontcourt tandem of Jaxson Hayes and Jonas Valanciunas caused problems for the Mavericks down low. New Orleans grabbed six offensive rebounds in the first five minutes of the game and finished with a 25-11 advantage in second-chance points.
Without Kristaps Porzingis since the trade and Marquese Chriss (right knee soreness) as part of their frontcourt corps, the Mavericks have relied on a two-player rotation between 6-10 Dwight Powell and power forward Maxi Kleber to play center.
But with extra dribble penetration from Doncic and Brunson (23 points), Dallas succeeded in forcing foul trouble as Hayes and Valanciunas committed a combined seven fouls with minutes remaining in the second quarter.
All the more flexibility for Doncic to work.
Doncic added another 20 points in the third quarter, shooting 8 of 11 from the floor, to complete his fifth 40-point game in the last month. Before then, Doncic had scored at least 40 points in a game just 14 times over three-plus seasons, including the playoffs.
Doncic’s teammates followed suit.
After setting a franchise record by shooting 68.7% from the field in their early December win in New Orleans, the Mavericks on Thursday finished 47.5% from three (19 of 40) and 53.7% overall.
Two days after tallying a season-high 19 points in Miami, Maxi Kleber surpassed the mark with 20. Dorian Finney-Smith (14 points) contributed a key steal and finished a transition layup through contact in the last three minutes, while Spencer Dinwiddie added eight points and five rebounds in his second Mavericks appearance since the trade deadline.
