CNN
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Luka Donjic He set up a historic triple-double in the Dallas Mavericks’ thrilling 126-121 overtime win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old scored a career-high 60 points and 21 rebounds to go with 10 assists, helping the Mavericks come within nine points with only 33 seconds left in regulation time.
It’s my first time in History of the NBA That the player has reached this baseline.
“I am very tired,” said Donjic after the match. “I need a recovery beer.”
In the past 20 seasons, all of the 13,884 NBA teams trailing by at least nine points with 35 seconds or less remaining have lost a game, according to ESPN.
However, on a final thrilling play, Dončić intentionally missed a free throw and then secured the rebound, before scoring the return to tie the game and force overtime.
The Slovenian star scored 10 points in the last minute of regulation time and added seven more points in overtime to seal the most unlikely victory.
Dončić also joins James Harden as the only other player in NBA history to score 60-point triple-doubles, and also becomes only the sixth player to score six or more 40-point triple-doubles after Oscar Robertson, Harden, Russell Westbrook, Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James.
“We’ve seen it on screen now,” Dončić said of his goalscoring feat. “We were watching NBA TV. I mean, it’s incredible to be in those comparisons and just be with these guys, at any point. It’s just amazing to me.”
Dončić’s 60 points also set a new franchise scoring record for Dallas, surpassing the 53 scored by Dirk Nowitzki against Houston in 2004.
Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said of Doncic becoming captain: “Just as he gets older, his birthday comes here in the new year, I think he’s seen it all at 23.” “But his competitiveness just to win is at a very high level – and I saw that on display tonight.
“It wasn’t going well. Give the Knicks credit for that, they were making a lot of triples that we didn’t think possible. They were playing harder. We were down 10. We were in that situation earlier in the season, when you talk about Abandon progress or abandon a match like this.
“Just to be able to stick together and trust, Luca had a big part to do with that. He never got frustrated with a game over. You see, he was playing the whole field, we had a great jump ball. There are a lot of things we learned from losing close games.” like this “.
The Mavericks improved to 19-16 on the season and climbed to sixth place in the Western Conference, while the Knicks lost four straight times to finish sixth in the East.
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