Dallas Mavericks stars Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving scored 42 and 40 points, respectively, in Thursday’s 133-126 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. Here’s what you should know:
🏀 FINAL SCORE THREAD 🏀
Luka and Kyrie showed out in the @dallasmavs W, becoming the first duo in franchise history to drop 40+ PTS in the same game!
Kyrie: 40 PTS, 4 REB, 6 AST, 6 3PM
Embiid: 35 PTS, 8 REB
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📲 https://t.co/WFdLNEjikq pic.twitter.com/qRq4vg89BU
— NBA (@NBA) March 3, 2023
Backstory
The new duo in Dallas put on a masterclass, accomplishing something no other pair of Mavericks teammates had before. Dončić finished with 42 points, 12 assists, four rebounds and a steal on 7-of-13 shooting from 3-point range. Irving had 40 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals, shooting 6-of-8 from 3.
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The Athletic’s instant analysis:
How are Dončić and Irving meshing?
With two scorers as good as Dončić and Irving are, the Mavericks’ offense will always have some my-turn-your-turn aesthetic to it. That said, these two dynamic scorers can embrace that — and we’re starting to see them play off of each other more than before. Obviously, the 82 combined points from the duo shows progress, and it was needed for the Mavericks to get a win after losing five of the last six games. — Cato
Can Dallas win this way?
Of course, Dončić and Irving can’t be expected to score 40 each every night — and Dončić’s seven 3s were an outlier for him, too. The defense wasn’t much better than before, and that was the cause of the team’s struggles in the past few games, but outscoring teams is a legitimate approach to winning regular season games in the coming weeks. Now with Irving, there’s little reason why Dallas can’t finish as the league’s best offense from here on out. — Cato
How rare is it for two teammates to both score 40-plus?
It’s actually happened twice this year already: Fox and Monk last month; Mitchell and LeVert in October. But it’s only happened 11 times since 2000, and it was the first time in Mavericks history that this has been achieved. Irving, famously, has been a part of one of those 11 duos when he and LeBron James each had 41 points in Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals. But while that was the only time those two did it, it’s truly not inconceivable that Dončić and Irving could replicate this feat again — even by the season’s end. — Cato
Required reading
(Photo: Kevin Jairaj / USA Today)
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