Against all odds, Luka’s 60-point masterpiece rallies Mavs past Knicks

When the Mavericks were down 112-103 with under 33 seconds to go Tuesday night, their chances of beating the New York Knicks were too tiny to calculate.

We were reminded, however, to never tell Luka Dončić the odds.

A heavy dose of crunch-time execution and a dash of luck at the end got the Mavericks to overtime and they then were able to grind out a 126-121 victory over the Knicks at American Airlines Center.

Dončić had a career night, which is saying a lot, given his career. He finished with 60 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists. The first two numbers were career bests. The 60 points are a Mavericks’ franchise record and the most ever at AAC.

It’s the first time in NBA history that any player has had a 60-20-10 stat line. Dončić joined James Harden (60 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists in 2018) as the only players in history with a 60-point triple-double.

They unveiled a statue on Christmas of the guy whose Mavericks’ scoring record Luka broke Tuesday. Dirk Nowitzki had 53 points in an epic shootout against Tracy McGrady in 2004.

Luka’s was even more massive.

But it was a missed shot that was his play of the game.

The Mavericks were behind by nine points with 33 seconds to play and the game had all the appearances of a goner. Researchers postgame said that teams trailing by nine points with under 35 seconds to play were 0 wins-and-13,000-plus losses before Tuesday night.

“That was really impressive,” Dončić said. “The whole team was: keep going. Zero-in-13,000-plus games in 35 seconds. That’s impressive. Everybody just kept it together. We believed.”

But the Mavericks went on a 12-3 run as they played the foul game, got a little help with a couple of Knicks miscues and got the gap down to 115-112 when the Knicks fouled Luka with 4 seconds remaining before he could get off a potential tying three-pointer.

It was still a ridiculous long shot that the Mavericks would pull out a win.

Christian Wood (19 points) and Spencer Dinwiddie (25 points) both hit three-pointers during the late run. Luka took care of the rest when he went to the line with the game still looking like a lost cause.

He made the first shot, then intentionally missed the second. After the ball was tipped by JaVale McGee, who had sat the entire game before that play, Luka got it about 12 feet from the hoop on the left side and pushed up a prayer that dropped in with a second to spare and forced the overtime.

“I don’t know. Just a little lucky there,” Luka said of the second free throw. “We put JaVale in there, all cold. He did a great job there. I don’t know who tipped it, JaVale or C-Wood. But I think it was meant to be, you know?”

Dončić went into a celebratory dance that had some rather odd moves to it. He said he was just happy. But admitted he got lost in the moment.

“It was celebrating,” he said. “A lot of people asked me about that, I thought we won it. I went to the crowd like this (arms raised) and thought we’d won it. Then I see it’s tied . . . whoo. I just threw it up and hopefully it went in. I never practiced that one before.”

Said coach Jason Kidd of the overtime-forcing play: “This kid doesn’t quit. You can see that. Late game was better for us tonight. The putback, JaVale caused that. That was a big play by JaVale sitting there the whole night. And then coming up with a play to help tie the game.

“Luka doesn’t quit. He keeps playing and his teammates didn’t quit. Everyone had a part in making a big play down the stretch.

Dončić said he had never scored 60 points in a game at any level.

“We sit here every night and we’re lucky,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We can’t take him for granted. Again, people get their money’s worth when they come watch him play. He puts on a show.

“But he’s all about winning. He believes he can win every night. As a teammate and a coach, that’s who you want in that locker room.”

In the extra frame, the Mavericks clamped down on the Knicks, got a few rebounds that had been a big problem for most of the game, and moved ahead 120-116 with 1:29 to go. And the Mavericks cruised home.

“Everybody’s still in shock,” Kidd said. “He’s special. The history of the game is written by the players and it was written again tonight. For a player, Luka, doing something that’s never been done before. It’s hard to do.”

A strong rebounding night by local product Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson served the Knicks well, but could not keep them from their fourth consecutive loss.

Randle, the Plano product who loves playing at AAC, poured in 29 points and grabbed 18 rebounds while Robinson had 20 points and 16 rebounds. They were particularly dominant in the meat of the fourth quarter.

When the Mavericks chopped the gap to 99-95 midway through the fourth quarter, the Knicks righted themselves with an offensive rebound and putback by Quentin Grimes.

They also got offensive rebounds on each of their next three possessions, although they capitalized only on the third one, hitting a three-pointer by Immanuel Quickley for a 104-95 lead with under four minutes remaining.

But the Mavericks were not done. Not with Luka around on a historic night.

As a result, they won for the fourth time in a row, the first time that’s happened since early November, and improved to 19-16. New York fell to 18-17 while playing without Jalen Brunson, who sat out with a hip injury.

There was rightfully a lot of buzz about Brunson’s return to AAC for the first time since he left the Mavericks in free agency.

It was limited to a few waves to the crowd when the Mavericks played a tribute video of his four seasons in Dallas. And a lot of cheering on the sideline as the Knicks’ point guard sat out with a hip injury suffered against Philadelphia on Christmas Day.

This shortened the already thin rotation New York coach Tom Thibodeau, who had been going with a seven-man rotation in recent games. He had even one less when R. J. Barrett left in the first half with a finger injury.

So it was up to the Mavericks to take advantage.

Luka made sure it happened.

Twitter: @ESefko