Luka Doncic: Dallas Mavericks star creates history with 20-assist triple-double in win over Washington Wizards

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With 15 seconds to go and the Mavericks down by two, Luka Doncic did what he had done all game.

He drew the attention of a Wizards double team and fired a pass to Dorian Finney-Smith in the corner, who drained the 3-pointer to put the Mavs in front with 9.3 seconds left to seal a 125-124 win over the Washington Wizards. 

“I knew they were trapping Luka; they’d trapped him the last three possessions,” Finney-Smith said of his game-winner. “I knew the ball probably was most likely going to find me, so I just wanted to be ready to shoot.”

That assist to Finney-Smith made it 20 on the night for Doncic, who finished with a wild stat line of 31 points, a career-high 20 assists and 12 rebounds, becoming the second Mavericks player in franchise history with a 20-assist game. 

His 10th triple-double of the season and 35th of his career makes him the second-fastest player to reach 35 career triple-doubles, trailing only Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson.

Doncic is also just the fourth player in NBA history to record 30/10/20 in a single game, joining Oscar Robertson (1961), Magic Johnson (1988) and Russsel Westbrook (2021).

Remarkably, despite playing 39 minutes and recording 20 assists, Doncic only had one turnover for the game, becoming the first player since Chris Paul (Dec. 2016) to have at least 20 assists and no more than one turnover.

Only six players have done so since 1996, with Doncic the youngest among the group, including John Stockton, Avery Johnson, Steve Nash, Deron Williams, and Chris Paul.

Not to be outdone, the current triple-double king was filling it up for the Wizards as he tried to will his team to victory on the road. 

Russell Westbrook poured in 42 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, falling just one assist shy of his 32nd triple-double of the season and 178th of his career. He remains four away from Oscar Robertson's all-time record, which he looks increasingly likely to break this season with eight games remaining on the Wizards' schedule. 

It wasn't just the record-breaking numbers from Doncic, the last-gasp win was a valuable one for the Mavericks, who now move to a 36-27 record and leapfrog the Los Angeles Lakers for the fifth seed in the Western Conference standings. The Lakers have the same record, but the Mavericks hold the tie-breaker this season, courtesy of winning the season series 2-1.

“All things taken into consideration, a phenomenal win and a very important win,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said.

Despite the win, Dallas is only one game ahead of the seventh seed Portland Trail Blazers, who are currently fighting to get out of the Play-In seeds and guarantee their spot in the playoffs. 

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the race for seedings is showing no signs of slowing down.

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Benyam Kidane is a senior NBA editor for The Sporting News.