After A Historic 50 Point Explosion On Christmas, Luka Doncic Will Not Stop Terrorizing The Phoenix Suns
If you were to ask a fan of all 30 NBA teams who is someone that absolutely torches their favorite team, everyone has a list. There's always one or two guys that whenever you play, deep in your gut you know that they are about to make your life as miserable as possible.
For the Phoenix Suns and their fans, that guy has to be Luka Doncic.
In 17 career regular season games, Luka is averaging 27.1 a night against the Suns. As good as that number looks, as you get to more and more recent seasons, things get even better.
Since 2019-20? 29.8 a game. Since 2020-21? 29.6 a game. Since 2021-22? 30.0 a game (and then 32.6 a night in their playoff series). Since 2022-23? 30.4 points a game. So far this year? Oh I dunno, how about 50 points
Luka did all that last night while also shooting 15-25 (8-16) from the floor and 12-12 from the FT line. That's an 82.6% TS%. Read that number again!! 82.6% TS%. What the hell? How is that even possible?
I'll tell you how that's possible, because Luka has owned this franchise ever since their playoff series. Since that moment, the Mavs had won 3 of 5, with the Suns only wins coming by 2 points and 4 points. Here are Luka's outings since that series
50 points on 60% shooting
34 points 34.8% shooting
0 points (3 minutes)
33 points on 60% shooting
35 points on 43.5% shooting
Remember this?
Well ever since that moment, this has been Luka every time he's faced the Mavs
There aren't too many matchups in the league where you can feel the bad blood through your TV screen, but PHX/DAL is definitely one. Those two teams have real hate in their hearts for one another, and as a fan watching with no real rooting interest in either team, I love it. I love that Luka talks his shit and then backs it up like this. That's what makes sports great. Don't just run your mouth and then not be able to back it up, talk your shit and then go drop 50 on the road in one of the best Christmas performances the NBA has ever seen. That rules. Not so much for Suns fans, but this is what happens when you poke the bear. Sometimes the bear pokes back.
Unfortunately for the Suns, they might stink for real. Now under .500, just 7-9 at home and 3-7 over their last 10 games and role players like Eric Gordon already complaining about his touches and Woj going on TV saying things aren't as rosey as you might think
you then add in what happened last night, and things could spiral out of control pretty quickly. Remember, the Suns gave up their future to bring this team together, and here we are at Christmas and you get the sense that it's already falling apart.
You know who probably loves that? This guy