On a bitter-cold night outside, Luka Dončić gave a small but exuberant crowd that braved the elements 53 reasons to feel all warm and cuddly inside American Airlines Center.
The Mavericks needed just about all of those 53 points to escape a feisty bunch of Detroit Pistons, who may have one of the worst records in the NBA but gave the Mavericks more than they wanted Monday night at American Airlines Center.
They survived with a 111-105 victory over the Pistons as Dončić had an efficient night, needing only 24 shots from the field to post his 53 points, the fourth time this season he’s topped half-a-hundred. The Mavericks are 4-0 in those games.
“Somebody told me I was 12-for-13 from twos (inside the three-point arc),” he said. “So I probably should have taken more twos than threes. But that’s efficient for me.”
Or anybody else on the planet. And it eased concerns about the sprained left ankle that Dončić suffered early in the game at Phoenix on Thursday and kept him out of Saturday’s visit to Utah.
He was back with a vengeance.
“It’s good,” he said. “Still obviously not 100 percent. But it’s good.”
From a historical standpoint, it was a big night. Dončić joined Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and James Harden (three times) as the only players in the last 50 seasons to post at least 50 points four times in a season.
He had 18 of the Mavericks’ first 20 points and poured in 45 before the end of the third quarter.
But it wasn’t until he finally got some help in the form of 10 points in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter by Spencer Dinwiddie that the Mavericks got the lead.
They had trailed 74-63 midway through the third quarter, but when Dinwiddie, who had 71 points in the two games on the road trip but only one by halftime on Monday, got rolling, the Mavericks went up 98-93.
At halftime, coach Jason Kidd said players took matters into their own hands.
“Sometimes, when someone comes back, you tend to wait,” Kidd said. “Spencer the last two games was playing at a high level. He was letting Luka dictate everything instead of just playing the game he was playing the last two. Luka’s going to join the party. He’s too talented not to. The ball’s going to find him.
“At halftime, we talked about Reggie looking to shoot the ball and Spencer looking to be aggressive. Act as if Luka is not out there. And I thought he started to do that.”
In other words, the players know when teammates need a hug – or a kick in the pants.
“You got to hold them accountable,” Kidd said. “As a coach, you can yell and scream. But the opportunity of being accountable as a teammate, when you wear that jersey, you have to tell your teammate he’s not doing his job. You can’t be afraid to tell someone that they’re not doing their job.
“And the person who’s hearing that has to accept that. And respond. At halftime, we talked about that and I thought the guys did a really good job of responding.
A lot was going on in an arena that had a lot of empty seats thanks to the sub-freezing temperature and periodic precipitation outside.
It was Seats for Soldiers night, which meant all courtside seats were occupied by military personnel sporting fatigues and/or Maverick T-shirts.
They saw the Mavericks improve to 27-25 while the lowly Pistons fell to 13-39.
But it was not a breeze by any stretch.
It was Luka’s dunk after a nice offensive rebound by Dwight Powell that put the Mavericks up 103-98 with 3:51 to go.
The Pistons did not die easily. Bojan Bogdanovic had a team-best 29 points and his three-pointer with 1:52 left drew Detroit within 107-105. But after Dorian Finney-Smith picked off an offensive rebound, Luka converted a 15-foot jumper and the Mavericks had enough breathing room to secure the win.
Throughout the game, Dončić had a running dialogue with the soldiers courtside. He also had one with Pistons assistant coach Jerome Allen.
“Since the first quarter, he was chirping.” Dončić said. “You know I’ll chirp back. I don’t have a problem (with that). It was from the first quarter, he was just chirping. I don’t want to say the words. But I have no problem with that. It’s basketball. It gets me going, for sure.”
After 53 points, it’s safe to say Luka got the last chirp.
He also got to meet with the soldiers postgame.
“It’s obviously a very special night because we didn’t have it for two years now,” he said, referring to the COVID-19 hiatus of the event.
The Mavericks now are 14-2 all-time in Seats for Soldiers games.
Twitter: @ESefko
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