Luka Magic Is Alive And Well, This Time He Scores 30 Points In A Single Half And Does Something We Haven't Seen Since Michael Jordan
Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.How important is Luka Doncic to the Dallas Mavericks? For starters, he has a 40.7% usage percentage which just the highest of his career, it's one of the highest usage rates in NBA history. In fact, it's the 2nd highest all time after Russell Westbrook's 41.65% in 2016-17. You could say Luka is fairly important to pretty much everything the Mavs do. We haven't seen usage this high since James Harden in 2018, and so far what Luka has been able to do for the Mavs tonight goes a long way in showing just how much he carries this team. Just look at their first half
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We're at the point now with Luka where this sort of thing shouldn't surprise us, but every time he steps on the floor I feel like we get shit we've never seen before or haven't seen since some NBA legend did it a million years ago.
Call me crazy, but scoring 30 after a full game is usually pretty impressive, so to do it in a single half feels rather insane. For that to be half of your team's points is also nuts. How often do you see someone be responsible for 50% of the scoring over the course of a full half? That's Luka Magic though. The way he dominates a game is so fun to watch mostly because it's not as if Luka is relying on crazy athleticism or anything like that. He's just a basketball wizard. Luka has a level of dominance that is unique to him and to me that's what makes it so special.
There's a reason he was given the keys to the Mavs franchise the second he showed up. When you're special, that's what happens.
Long term, the Mavs probably shouldn't want to be so overly reliant on Luka. You always have to worry about burnout for a guy with that type of responsibility to carry the offensive load in October and how they'll look in April. For now, fine, go nuts. This is some Grade A Luka MVP material as he goes about building his case this season. But the secondary guys have to continue to show up throughout the year if the Mavs want to contend. Luka can only do so much, so it'll be interesting to see how things fluctuate over the next 6-7 months.
Meanwhile, they're in a battle right now with the Magic so if someone wouldn't mind stepping up and helping Luka out, I'm sure Mavs fans would appreciate it. You certainly don't want to drop to 2-4 by losing to the 1-5 Magic at home.