Jason Kidd asked for it — and he got it.
Before Thursday’s game against the Houston Rockets, the Dallas Mavericks’ coach said he asked his team to give Luka Doncic some help, and added that it wasn’t fair to Doncic for them to keep relying on their superstar point guard to manufacture a superhuman effort night-in and night-out. Kidd’s plea obviously worked as Christian Wood, Dwight Powell and Tim Hardaway Jr. each scored at least 18 points as the Mavs rolled over the Rockets, 129-114, on Thursday night at American Airlines Center.
And, oh yeah, Doncic provided another superhuman performance as he chipped in with 35 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists. In the process, he collected the 54th triple-double of his career as the Mavs improved to 20-16 while winning their season-high fifth game in a row.
Doncic was coming off of Tuesday’s dramatic showing against the New York Knicks when he scored a franchise-high 60 points, grabbed 21 rebounds and distributed 10 assists while becoming the first player in NBA history with a 60-20-10 triple-double. But on this night when the supporting cast answered the bell, it was a welcomed sight for the Mavs that they didn’t need Doncic to go into overdrive in order for them to pick up a win.
“I did ask a couple of players that we needed to step up and not wait for Luka, and they responded,” Kidd said. “We talked about it before the game and they understand the time or the stress we put on Luka.
“So we needed some guys to be able to get some easy baskets and take that stress off of him and they did that tonight.”
Wood finished with 21 points, six rebounds and a season-high tying four blocks, Powell was 8-of-8 from the floor and collected a season-high 19 points and six rebounds in only 21 minutes, and Hardaway added 18 points. Also for the Mavs, Spencer Dinwiddie contributed 15 points and six assists.
In addition, Wood had four blocks when the Mavs defeated the Rockets in Houston on Dec. 23, so apparently the former Rocket center sees red whenever he sees the Rockets.
“I’m just making (playing defense) an emphasis,” Wood said. “I’m trying to be that help-side guy and trying to protect the rim.
“These guys are just trusting me to challenge shots, and that’s what we’ve been working on in practice.”
The up-tick in defense has worked as the Mavs blocked eight shots and, despite a plethora of injuries, will take a season-high five-game winning streak into Saturday’s game in San Antonio.
“We’re just playing together,” Wood said. “If you look at the last game (against the Knicks) we stayed together even though everybody probably thought we were going to lose.
“Today we stayed together, everybody was moving the ball and even the games before that we were piggy-backing off each other, playing off each other and it’s really working out. Also, Luka’s playing like an MVP.”
Doncic started this game as if his pants were on fire as he scored 14 of the Mavs’ first 26 points in a variety of ways. In addition, his long-range three-point bomb that beat the halftime buzzer sent a buzz throughout the arena and gave him 21 points – along with seven rebounds and seven assists – as the Mavs led, 65-51, at intermission.
Also, Doncic was firing so many full-court passes that led to easy opportunity layups or dunks that some of his pin-point passes even had his shrugging his shoulders as if to say he was surprised those passes kept reaching their intended destinations.
“Yeah, that was definitely a big emphasis for us coming in tonight was to get out and run, and put pressure on the rim and in transition,” Powell said. “And obviously our guards – Luka, especially — was looking ahead and trusting that we were going to run under some of those Hail Mary’s.”
The Mavs ran under so many Hail Mary’s that they tallied an un-Maverick-like 25 fastbreak points, while holding Houston to just five fastbreak points. Kidd said they didn’t talk about the full-court passes before the game, jut he celebrated the results.
“For whatever reason, Dāvis (Bertāns) is one of (Doncic’s) favorite tight ends, receivers,’’ Kidd said. “He tends to outrun the coverage and I
think he set the tone for us in a fun way, a great way.
“But again, the full-court pass – DP (Dwight Powell) was great. He received a couple of those full-court passes. He was 8-for-8 coming off the bench. He’s been great all season. Again, just being able to get out, run and get easy baskets so we don’t have to struggle in the half court.”
It was not a struggle at all for the Mavs, who led by as many as 25 points in the second half. Doncic, meanwhile, already had his triple-double secured less than seven minutes into the third quarter and is averaging 40.4 points, 11.8 rebounds, 10.4 assists and 2.2 steals over the past five games.
Also, with 95 points, Doncic has the most points scored in NBA history in consecutive triple-doubles, passing the 94 points scored by Russell Westbrook on March 29, 2017 when he was playing for Oklahoma City.
Before the game, Rockets coach Stephen Silas said he was on a plane when he got word of Doncic’s theatrics against the Knicks. Silas also said he wound up watching the overtime portion of the Mavs-Knicks game, when Doncic continued to terrorize the Knicks.
“Yeah, it is amazing,” Silas said. “He’s shooting more free throws than he ever has in his career and it’s helping his scoring.
“Yeah, it’s always been his passing that has been the thing that has really separated him from everybody else. But now he’s adding the scoring to the passing, which makes him just a nightmare to defend and prepare for.”
The Mavs went on to lead 99-79 after the third quarter. All that remained was for the Mavs fans to reach back and cheer loudly for former Mavs center Boban Marjanovic, who scored six points in the final four minutes of mop-up duty.
Overall, the Mavs shot 51.6 percent from the field and were 18-of-45 from downtown for 40 percent. And Wood scored 12 of his points in the 
third quarter, which ended with the Mavs nursing a 99-79 lead.
“The guys were trying to get me involved more,” Wood said. “They saw I wasn’t having the best game, I was in foul trouble and I didn’t really play a lot in the first half, so they were just making an emphasis to try and get me the ball and I did the best I could to take advantage of the opportunity.
“It was a lot of trash talking going on, but it’s all love with these guys. Jalen (Green), Kevin (Porter Jr.), Alperen (Sengun), they’re a good young team, they’re good young guys, they’re good guys. I wish them the best – coach Silas, too. It was good win for us.”
A win the Mavs can savor before hitting the road to take on the Spurs.
“We’ve been trusting each other,” Powell said. “There’s obviously been ups and downs. Clearly there have been some games that some people counted us out during the game, but we stuck together.
“That’s one of the biggest things for us is trusting one another and staying together regardless of the situation and having that next man up mentality.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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