DALLAS – The pass came in Luka Doncic’s direction, and rather than just catch the basketball, he very nonchalantly did a soccer chest trap, let the ball trickle down into his hands, and took a wild step-back three-pointer against Patrick Williams.
The Mavericks point guard went back into his bag of tricks in the third quarter, attacking the basket like he was choosing violence, and then when Coby White flew by him for the shot-block attempt, Doncic froze, watched White fly by, and simply banked in the 4-footer, adding a wink to his bench as he strolled back up the court.
All in a night’s work for the Maverick’s MVP candidate, as Doncic scored 27 points, handed out 13 assists, and grabbed seven rebounds in Dallas’ 119-99 win at the American Airlines Center Wednesday.
A reminder of what a team with an elite superstar looks like compared to a team still in search of one.
And the kicker? Billy Donovan knew what was coming years ago.
The Bulls coach actually brought his then-Oklahoma City team to Europe back in 2016, and faced a young Doncic when the Thunder scrimmaged Real Madrid.
“Their coach is a great guy, (Pablo) Laso,” Donovan recalled. “I heard of (Doncic), I knew his name but had never seen him play. (Laso) was raving to me about him at that time and he was maybe 17, 18 years old. He came off the bench for them.
“Once he kind of came in (the NBA with Dallas) as a rookie it was pretty clear what his impact was going to be. The one thing is he really rises up in pressure situations, which I have great regard and admiration for. I think the other thing too is he’s just a basketball savant. He’s seen every possible coverage, he has great vision and size. I’ve never seen a guy from the point guard position, and I’m talking like against elite defenders in this game, walk down the lane, body his way and take layups. You could see his rookie year that he was going to get better, better and better.”
Now in year 7, Doncic is nearly unstoppable. The Bulls (3-5) were just the latest team to be reminded of that. And it wasn’t like they had to wait to see the exhibition.
Thanks to Doncic dictating the tempo right off the tip off, the Bulls were quickly down 13 points in that opening quarter, as Doncic scored eight points, handed out five assists and was a plus-15 in the plus/minus category.
The only sign of life the Bulls showed in that opening stanza came from rookie Matas Buzelis, who finished with a career-high 13 points, but gave the Bulls a spark with five quick points off the bench.
Even with an uneven start to the season so far, there’s a reason the Mavs (5-3) are projected to challenge for the Western Conference crown again this year, and the Bulls found that out after Dallas played around with them through most of the first half.
By the time the third quarter was just a few minutes in it was obvious that playtime was over. Not only did Doncic and the home team run the Bulls out of the gym by outscoring them 32-23 in the quarter, but took advantage of mistakes that the Bulls continue to showcase far too many times this season. Specifically, 23 turnovers that led to 28 points for the Mavs.
That’s how an 11-point deficit grew to 24 quickly.
“Turning the ball over on top of that drains us down as a team,” Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu said of the loss. “When they’re getting easy baskets, and Luka is getting easy baskets, getting the crowd going, getting the team going, and now they’re a tougher team to beat.”