Luka Doncic takes Jason Kidd’s challenge personally and leads the Mavs to a win over the Magic

On November 4, 2024By Littum

With Paolo Banchero out of the lineup for the Orlando Magic due to injury, the Dallas Mavericks were able to defiantly beat the Magic on Sunday night at the American Airlines Center as Dallas won 108-85. Dallas had a really balanced attack offensively in this contest and got great two-way play out of both of their centers in Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford as the big man duo finished with 29 combined points and 19 combined rebounds in this contest.

The Magic suffered from a shot creation aspect without Banchero in this game, and Dallas’ bigs did a good job of polishing the paint in the instances where Magic players were able to get an attempt at the rim.

Much like last Thursday night’s loss against Houston, Dallas struggled to get Klay Thompson open in this game, and Orlando opted not to foul Thompson at all in this contest.

But even though Thompson only finished with nine points on 4-10 shooting from the field in this game, Thompson didn’t force anything and played within the flow of the offense.

Dallas doesn’t have a Klay Thompson problem at all, but they had a problem getting off to a good start offensively heading into this game, especially in the case of Luka Doncic.

Last Thursday against the Rockets epitomized this problem that has plagued Doncic through various points last season as well as the first few games this season, as Doncic forced tough looks from the outside and was ineffective in the first half of that contest.

But in the first half against the Magic on Sunday night, Doncic had 25 points on 9-14 shooting as he routinely made stepback 3-pointers from outside and got called on his footwork in the post.

For the Mavericks to reach their potential this season, Doncic needs to get off to better starts like this more often so that Dallas’ offense can get into a rhythm sooner. Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd also emphasized the importance of this in a pregame interview, and Kidd’s wishes were granted after Dallas was up 65–40 at halftime.

Jason Kidd on their slow start:

“In the past we’ve looked at Luka owning the first quarter, but as a team we don’t own the first quarter. We have a scoring deficit … Looking to get a rhythm. I think the positive energy, to be able to get out and run, get something… pic.twitter.com/FW9S0sYluL

— Noah Weber (@noahweber00) 3 November 2024

With this game being the first night of a back-to-back, it’s extremely relieving that Dallas was able to get its first blowout win of the season on a night like this. Doncic finished with 32 points in this contest, though he could have easily had more if he didn’t have the luxury of getting fouled early when Dallas was up by so much.

Aside from Doncic, none of Dallas’ other starters played more than 29 minutes in this game. Hopefully Dallas taking care of business tonight will lead to them being a little more energized when they take on a hungry 2-4 Indiana Pacers team tomorrow night on the second night of this back-to-back.

The Mavericks are talented enough to pull out wins when Doncic gets off to a rough start if he’s able to settle in the second half like we’ve seen this season, but Doncic can do himself and the team a lot of favors by focus on getting off to hot starts like he did tonight, as the benefits are typically huge.