NBA superstar Luka Dončić recorded a triple-double for the seventh straight game as the Dallas Mavericks routed the Chicago Bulls, 127-92, on Monday.
Dončić posted 27 points, 12 rebounds and 14 assists along with a steal in the blowout win despite not having the most efficient shooting night, going 9-for-23 from the field at the United Center in Chicago.
While the 25-year-old stuffed the stat sheet yet again, his historic streak of triple-doubles with at least 30 points ended at six games when head coach Jason Kidd pulled him from action during the fourth quarter with the Mavericks up by 33 points.
“Just understanding Luka setting records, it becomes tough when you’re trying to win the game and you’re also trying to be respectful of the situation,” Kidd said.
“We gave him a couple of cracks at [extending the streak], and then I looked at him and told him it was time for him to come out, and he was good with that. That just shows his maturity and his leadership. As well as he’s going with records, he also understood the situation.”
Dončić, who is averaging 34.6 points per game and leading the league in scoring, has been on a dominant run since returning from the All-Star Break. Across the last 10 games, he has racked up 364 points, 114 assists and 102 rebounds – no other player has matched these numbers across any 10-game span since the 1975-76 season, per Basketball Reference.
The Mavericks made just under 55% of their field goals as they ripped through the Bulls defense. Dallas got considerable production out of its big man duo of Derrick Lively II and Daniel Gafford, who scored 22 and 20 points respectively.
“I have never seen this before when you have two centers dominate like that,” Kidd said after the game.
Gafford, formerly of the Bulls, was 9-for-9 during the matchup and has not missed a single shot in his last four games. He has now made 28 consecutive field goals, the most since play-by-play stats started being recorded in the 1997-98 season.
“My philosophy is just being consistent and having the mindset of just wanting to finish everything, no matter if there’s somebody in front of you or if there isn’t somebody in front of you,” Gafford said, per the Mavs. “At the end of the day, I either dunk it or put it in the rim.”
While the Mavericks’ offense was free-flowing, Chicago struggled to get anything going on either side of the ball, falling to the 35-point defeat while shooting only 39.3% from the field.
“We gave up a lot of rolls to the basket and offensive rebounds,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said postgame. “We’ve got to be more pulled in than we were.
“We, kind of, were too worried with getting back out to that three-point line instead of saying, ‘Hey, we’re gonna take away the roll.’”
Onuralp Bitim, who recently had his two-way contract converted into a standard NBA deal by the Bulls, led the team in scoring with 17 points off the bench. Six-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan – the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week with Dončić taking home the honor for the West – was held to only 13 points in a dismal shooting night for the whole squad.
The Bulls fall to 31-34 after the disappointing home loss and remain the 9th seed in the East as a spot in the postseason Play-In Tournament looks increasingly likely. The Mavericks are also in a Play-In position in the highly competitive West at No. 8 but have a significantly better record at 37-28.
Both sides return to the court on Wednesday with Chicago visiting the Indiana Pacers and Dallas hosting the Golden State Warriors.