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Last week in Mavs basketball… The Mavericks played three games over the past week, going 2-1 and improving their record to 4-2 on the season. The bench unit led the way in a big win in Denver while the Lakers pulled away in an emotional loss in overtime on Friday. The week was capped off by another triple-double by Luka Doncic and another win for the Mavs in Cleveland.

Here are five things that stood out on social media over the last week.

Luka Doncic is not of this world

Imagine thinking that Luka Doncic hit his ceiling last year as a professional basketball player. If you were one of those people and you are reading this, I am sorry that you thought wrong. Actually, I’m not sorry. You were just wrong. Let’s take a look at Doncic’s first six games of the season.

vs Washington – 34 points, nine rebounds, three assists
vs New Orleans – 25 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists
vs Portland – 29 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists
vs Denver – 12 points, four rebounds, five assists
vs. Los Angeles – 31 points, 13 rebounds, 15 assists
vs Cleveland – 29 points, 14 rebounds, 15 assists

Yeah, those are three triple-doubles in the first six games, and he was one assist away in the Portland game from having four. In the last two games, Doncic has put up back-to-back triple-doubles with at least 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 15 assists. The only other player in NBA history to do that has been Oscar Robertson.

Doncic is ninth in the league in points per game, third in assists per game and 13th in rebounds per game. Here are some offensive categories for Doncic so far and where he stands in points per possession according to Synergy.

Isolation – 1.115 points per possession
Spot up – 1.273 PPP
Around the basket – 1.654 PPP
Shots off dribble – 1.125 PPP

Luka Doncic is not from this planet and he’s not doing anything to hide that at the moment.

Where is Boban?

Group pictures are cool and all until someone from the group is left out of the picture. In this case, it was literally the tallest player in the NBA. Taken right outside of the Mavs practice facility, the entire roster posed for a team picture… except Boban Marjanovic was missing.

But thanks to Photoshop, you can do anything. Here were some of the best fan submissions to make sure Bobi was included.

https://twitter.com/DarthA1ex/status/1190311209108533248?s=20

And of course, Boban himself had to get in on the fun.

 Welcome to the block party

Back before the season started, former NBA champion and NBA Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen was on ESPN’s The Jump talking about Kristaps Porzingis. The topic came about as they were discussing a recent interview in which R.J. Barrett, a rookie for the New York Knicks, was asked who he would like to dunk on in the NBA. Barrett answered with Porzingis.

When discussing Barrett’s proclamation on The Jump, Pippen had this to say about Porzingis’ shot blocking ability: “Porzingis doesn’t really have a resume as being a shot blocker or anything like that. Plus, he’s a little injured right now. He may not even play next season. I’d like to see him go after someone like Gobert or Giannis. Go after the MVP or the Defensive Player of the Year.”

Oh, Scottie.

We could spend all day proving Porzingis’ resume as a shot blocker, but lets just focus on the last season in which he played basketball back in 2017-18. Porzingis averaged 2.4 blocks a game and finished with 115 total blocks on the season. This was tied with Karl-Anthony Towns for eighth in total blocks. He had more total blocks than Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Serge Ibaka.

All in just 48 games. Porzingis tore his ACL in February of that season.

Fast forwarding to this season and the block party was made its way to Dallas. In the win in Cleveland on Sunday night, Porzingis recorded a season-high six blocks.

Porzingis is averaging 2.7 blocks a game, which is second in the league behind only Anthony Davis. He’s one of the best shot blockers in the league and it isn’t slowing down any time soon.

Visit The Hangar for your new jersey

The classic Icon and Association jerseys are back for another season. The white with blue accents is my personal favorite, but the Mavs recently debuted their new statement jerseys at the beginning of the season. With it being all about the details, the statement jerseys support a deep navy blue that goes really well with the white lettering on the front and back of the jersey. With the City Edition jerseys coming right around the corner, it’s time for you to grab your new jersey for the season.

Heck, Dwight Howard already did.

Cuban calls for a bench unit nickname

Last year the Denver Nuggets finished with the second best record in the Western Conference with a 54-28 record. After bringing back the majority of the roster and MVP candidate, Nikola Jokic, leading the way, the Nuggets are primed for another stellar season. When Dallas visited Denver in the fourth game of the season, everyone knew it would be a tough contest.

In a game in which Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis combined for just 22 points on 7-of-26 shooting, the Mavericks came away with a hard-fought victory behind the play of everyone else. Seven other players finished in double-figures. The bench unit collectively finished with 61 points, 18 assists, 17 rebounds, three blocks, and three steals.

This led to a challenge by Mark Cuban.

https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1189513511979884544?s=20

Here were some of my personal favorites.

https://twitter.com/chriscal87/status/1189514228056645633?s=20

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