A somewhat sleepy Tuesday night in the NBA didn’t see any prolific individual performances occur, but we did witness Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks earn their 10th home win of the season to shift into the seventh seed in a contentious Western Conference.
Damian Lillard was his brilliant self against Dallas, nearly turning in a high-scoring triple-double,nfl nike jerseys cheap china but he finished with the second-worst net rating on the team (minus-12) thanks to another stellar showing from Doncic, who joined Joel Embiid as the only other rookie in past five seasons with at least 20 points in half of his first 22 games.
A hot start to the season saw Portland get to 12-5 as one of the top seeds in the West a few weeks back, including four straight wins on the road, but they’ve now lost six of their past seven. However, the dip in the standings is not hurting Lillard’s statistical stock, as he is third overall on the Player Rater during the past seven days, behind only Anthony Davis and James Harden. Given age and usage patterns, this is likely one of, if not the, best statistical seasons for the veteran, so his managers should enjoy the ride.
Doncic, meanwhile, is found ahead of Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum on the Player Rater this season, thanks to averaging 18.6 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 4.2 APG, and 2.3 3PG. The list of rookies to ever average these numbers is, well, zero, as Doncic would become the first professional freshman in league history to tally such a deft balance of offensive output.cheap nike nfl jerseys paypal
For some greater context league-wide compared to veterans, only LeBron James, Paul George, Blake Griffin and Victor Oladipo also claim Doncic’s current blend of production. Even Doncic’s biggest supporters likely didn’t envision this level of initial success, as the smooth Slovenian wing is downright dominant off the bat.
