Luka Doncic scored 50 points to lead Dallas to victory and break the 10,000-point mark. What other milestones is he on pace for?

Luka Doncic helped the Dallas Mavericks to a straight 50-point victory in Phoenix, and he also surpassed the 10,000-point mark as the seventh-fastest and sixth-youngest player in NBA history. What other milestones is he on pace to reach?

Luka Doncic excelled on the floor in Phoenix

In the game Phoenix Suns vs Dallas Mavericks (114:128), 24-year-old Slovenian basketball player Luka Doncic literally excelled. He was the sixth player of the season to break the magical 50-point mark in a game and only the fourth to do so on Christmas Eve.

He contributed 50 points to the Mavericks’ win. He also dished out 14 accurate assists to his teammates and grabbed 6 rebounds. He also scored 4 rebounds for his team and successfully blocked 3 shots of the opponent. This only confirmed his incredible form, which just culminated in this game.

He entered the match with only 11 points short of breaking the 10,000 points mark. He surpassed that in the first quarter after scoring 17 points, then he even broke out for his best performance of the season.

On the other hand, the home team’s biggest star, Kevin Durant, did not fare as well, scoring just 16 points in the game and dropping from third to fifth in the scorers’ standings. Even though he was replaced by one of the best performances of his career, Grayson Allen, who scored 32 points, it just wasn’t enough for a rampant Doncic and the entire Dallas team.

Doncic and the 10,000-point mark

Luka Doncic surpassed that mark as the seventh-fastest basketball player in history. And he’s still only 24 years old. Only phenomenal players like Wilt Chamberlain have reached this mark faster, he only needed 236 games to do it, followed by Michael Jordan (303), Elgin Baylor (315), Kareem – Abdul Jabbar (315), Oscar Robertson (334) and George Gervin (355).

Doncic needed to play 358 games to reach that mark. So he needed the same amount of games as Bob McAdoo. All of the players mentioned above are members of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

In addition, at the age of 24 years and 300 days, he became the sixth fastest player to reach the milestone. Only five players have done it at a younger age: Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Tracy McGrady.

Only once in the entire month has a Slovenian basketball player failed to surpass the 30-point mark. Thus, he is slowly catching up to Joel Embiid, the best player of the last two seasons, at the top of the scorers’ table.

Other possible shifts in the historical tables

During the next season, he will most likely climb already to the 7th place of the historical tables in career triple-doubles, as he has not fallen below the 10 triple-doubles per season mark for the last 4 seasons in a row. In the current season, he already has 6 of them and trails James Harden and Wilt Chamberlain by 12 and 18 respectively.

Top scorer of the season

It’s also only a matter of time before he receives the league’s MVP award for his performances. After all, he’s much more versatile than current holder Joel Embiid and averages far more points than Nikola Jokic. With his career average of 28 points per game steadily increasing, plus his even greater performance progression seen virtually every season, he will surely be one of the youngest players to break the 20,000 point mark.

Only the fourth in history

The very first player to score more than 50 points on Christmas Day was Wilt Chamberlain in 1961 – 59 points. Rick Barry also scored 50 points in 1966. Then in 1984, Bernard King set a shooting record for the day with 60 points.

Source: NBA