Aftermath of amazing: reliving Luka’s 60, Mavs comeback

When you think about the sheer enormity of what happened Tuesday night, there’s no way to process it.

Teams leading by nine or more points with under 35 seconds to play in NBA games were 13,884-and-0 over the last 20 seasons.

Until Luka.

The things that had to happen for the Mavericks to salvage a game that already should have been shoveled into the trash bin were remarkable.

Here’s what happened:

After Miles McBride hit two free throws, Christian Wood’s three-pointer with 26.8 seconds left to make it 112-106.

The Mavericks double-teamed Quentin Grimes in the backcourt, forced a jump ball that Luka Dončić won. Tim Hardaway Jr. missed a three-pointer, but Luka scored on a putback, was fouled and converted the three-point play with 15.4 seconds left to make it 112-109.

Dončić took a foul with 11.5 seconds left. McBride made the second of two free throws: 113-109.

Spencer Dinwiddie made a three-pointer with 9.4 seconds left: 113-112.

With 7.7 seconds left, McBride is fouled and makes both free throws: 115-112.

The Knicks foul Dončić before he can get off a three-pointer. He goes to the line with 4.2 seconds left, makes the first free throw and intentionally misses the second. The ball is tipped to Luka on the left wing and in one motion he grabs it and flips in an 11-foot shot to tie it at 115 with a second showing.

That’s a lot of basketball in a 30-second window of clock time.

“Twenty-nine seconds to go and there are air shots, offensive rebounds, fouls,” said New York coach Tom Thibodeau. “It’s disappointing. We gave up and-ones, uncontested shots and we missed free throws. It was a compilation of things. It’s tough. It’s tough.”

After that mega-rally, you knew the Mavericks were going to roll in the overtime. And they did.

And now that we have the game info out of the way, we can go to the takeaways from the win.

There is more than one, even though when somebody scores 60 points, that’s all you really need to know.

LUKA, LUKA, LUKA: We had to stop there because we don’t have the time or the space to type 60 Lukas. With 60 points and 21 rebounds, both career highs, Dončić had the best game of his illustrious career. That he tacked on 10 assists gave him a place in history. Only James Harden has had a 60-point triple-double and nobody has ever had a 60-point triple-double with 20-plus rebounds. Luka had 25 points just in the fourth quarter and overtime periods. He went from 41 points to 60 points in the last eight minutes. That’s 19 points in 7:52 of clock time. And the Mavericks won. “He had a great week last week and won player of the week (Christmas week),” coach Jason Kidd said. “And we talked about going 3-0. It’s hard in this league when you score 50 and (don’t) win, you won’t get player of the week. He’s all about winning. Tonight, 60. He just does whatever his team needs to win. He separated himself and made his own class, which is pretty cool.”

STREAKING, BY THE WAY: The Mavericks have their second four-game win streak of the season. Yes, they did it the hard way. But they did it. So what was Luka like in the postgame locker room? Well, after getting a water-bottle bath courtesy of his teammates, he was just Luka. “He’s cool,” Kidd said. “He’s just going to sit there, drink a protein shake (or) water and probably just check his phone like everybody else. The whole team celebrated with the shower of water. (It’s a stat) line like that deserves to be celebrated. It’s a big win. We could have easily folded. And it keeps the winning streak going.”

GETTING ONE BACK: We like to say here in the control room that you never really make up for bad losses. When you lose to Oklahoma City on your home floor when the Thunder don’t have two of their three best players, you can never retrieve that loss. We stand corrected. The Mavericks got back one of those awful November losses when they overcame that nine-point deficit in the final 33 seconds. Let’s face it: they were getting outplayed for 47 minutes. They couldn’t rebound and they couldn’t make enough shots. Yet they still won. It was a gift from the hoop gods. And Luka.

BONUS TAKE: Lost in Luka Magic was a pretty good supporting effort by Spencer Dinwiddie and Christian Wood. Dinwiddie had 25 points, six rebounds and five assists. Wood had 19 points and nine rebounds. Those are numbers that make up for a dreadful night from the Mavericks’ bench, which contributed just nine points and was a combined 2-for-11 from three-point land. Wood is gaining confidence by the game and Dinwiddie is looking more and more like the guy he was before the knee injury. If this continues, when the Mavericks get healthier they should be able to hit an even better stride.

Twitter: @ESefko

The post Aftermath of amazing: reliving Luka’s 60, Mavs comeback appeared first on The Official Home of the Dallas Mavericks.

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