Doncic’s ankle looked fine in 50-point game

Luka Doncic’s status heading into the game against the Detroit Pistons on Monday was questionable. The Dallas Mavericks star had to sit out for the four days leading up to the game due to a sprained ankle. Yet on Monday, he had such a good game, you’d have no idea he wasn’t completely healthy.

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Doncic has another 50-point game

Ankle sprain? What ankle sprain? It was impossible to notice anything might be wrong with Luka Doncic as he put up 53 points on 17-of-24 shooting from the field and had eight rebounds and five assists in the Mavs’ 111-105 victory over the Pistons.

“Yeah, it’s good,” said Doncic when a reporter asked about his ankle after the game. “It’s still not obviously 100 percent, but it’s good. We did some good work.”

I’m not sure where he believes the “obvious” part was in his ankle not being 100 percent. Doncic put up 24 points in the first quarter alone, the highest first-quarter total of any other player this season. He shot 9-of-10 from the paint and made five 3-pointers and 18 free throws. In total, he contributed by scoring or assisting in 65 of the Mavs’ 111 points. This was Doncic’s second-highest scoring game of his career and his fifth 50-point game.

“I really think we had, in the first half especially, some pretty great looks,” said Doncic. “It just didn’t go in. Sometimes they double, sometimes they didn’t. But I think we had really great looks.”

In fact, Doncic, as he often does, was left carrying the team the whole game. Spencer Dinwiddie was the only other Mavericks player to put up double-digit points and he took 16 shots just to get to 12 points.

The NBA trade deadline is coming up in a little over a week. If the Mavs don’t do something, well, it’s a good thing they have Doncic, who can apparently play on an elite level even on a less-than-100% ankle, but they’d do well to make some changes and get Doncic some reliable help.