There is no doubt that Luka Doncic of Ljubljana, Slovenia is a rising star in the National Basketball Association at only 21 years of age. However Dallas Mavericks fans would hope to believe Doncic can take them to the promise land now.
On Wednesday night in the Orlando bubble, Doncic was simply magnificent. In scoring 28 points in a 127-114 win over the Los Angeles Clippers in game two of their first round playoff series, Doncic made NBA history. He set the record for the most points scored by a NBA player in his first two career playoff games. Doncic, who scored 42 points in the Mavericks’ 118-110 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, now has 70 points in his first 96 playoff minutes, and broke the record previously set by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of New York City.
Abdul-Jabbar, who was known as Lew Alcindor in his early years in the NBA, held the old record of 69 points. He had 36 points in a 125-118 Bucks win over the Philadelphia 76ers on March 25, 1970, and then had 33 points in a 112-105 Bucks loss to the 76ers on March 27, 1970. Abdul-Jabbar and the Bucks would go on to beat the 76ers in five games in the opening round in 1970, before losing in five games in round two to the New York Knicks. Then in his second NBA season, Abdul-Jabbar won the NBA Finals with Milwaukee.
Doncic will hope he takes Dallas to a championship title in the same time frame as Abdul-Jabbar. The Slovenian sensation also had eight rebounds and seven assists on Wednesday. He made eight of his 17 field goal attempts, four of his seven three-point attempts, and eight of his 12 free throw attempts.
However for the Mavericks to get by the Clippers, they will need to beat a Clippers team led by the great, Kawhi Leonard of Los Angeles, California. Leonard was the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014 and Toronto Raptors in 2019,
