The Dallas Mavericks have gotten out of the gates slowly in the 2022-23 NBA season. They are currently 3-3, but they could quite easily be 6-0 had a few breaks gone their way in some of the games.
On opening night against the Phoenix Suns, the Mavericks blew a 22-point lead and ended up losing the game by two points. A back-and-forth game against the New Orleans Pelicans resulted in another two-point loss.
Their third loss of the season was another blown lead, this time against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Dallas led by as many as 16 points in that game but was unable to put the Thunder away. The Mavericks ended up losing the game 117-111 in overtime.
While it is certainly disappointing to be 3-3 after that stretch, the Mavericks look to be in solid shape. They have performed at a high level on both ends of the court in the early going, which is a good indicator of their future success. It is also easy to start piling up wins when you have a player as good as Luka Doncic on your roster.
LATEST NBA NEWS: Luka Doncic & Dallas Mavericks Updates
Doncic has been excellent to start the season for the Mavericks. He is averaging an eye-popping 36.7 points per game to go along with 9.5 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 1.7 steals in 36.7 minutes per game.
Just how good of a stretch is this scoring-wise for the perennial MVP candidate? According to Tim McMahon of ESPN, Doncic is the first player since Michael Jordan to score at least 30 points in each of his team’s first six games of the season.
Any time that you are in the same company as Michael Jordan, you are doing something right. The ease with which Doncic has been scoring has been quite impressive.
He is making 50.3 percent of his shot attempts thus far, which would easily be a career-high. Doncic is actually leaving some points on the board as he has made only 22.6 percent of his 3-point attempts thus far.
LATEST NBA NEWS: Luka Doncic & Dallas Mavericks Updates
His 65 percent shooting on 2-pointers is something you only see from big men that hang around the basket exclusively. What Doncic is accomplishing could very well lead to some special scoring nights throughout the season, especially if his 3-point percentage ticks up near his career numbers and his overall efficiency remains the same.
