Dallas star Luka Doncic rewrote the NBA record book on Tuesday, 27 December with a stunning 60-point triple-double, carrying the Mavericks to a wild 126-121 overtime victory over the New York Knicks.
Doncic added 21 rebounds and 10 assists, becoming the first player in NBA history with a triple-double featuring at least 60 points and 20 rebounds.
He’s just the second player, after James Harden, to score 60 points in a triple-double, with Harden scoring 60 points with 10 rebounds and 11 assists in a game for Houston in 2018.
“He’s special,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said of Slovenian star Doncic, who also had two steals and a blocked shot in the contest.
Doncic posted his career-high in rebounds and notched his seventh triple-double of the season to help Dallas rally for the win.
The Knicks, led by 33 points from Quentin Grimes, were up by nine with 33.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, but Dallas out-scored them 12-3 to close the period.
Doncic tied it up with one second remaining, coming up with the rebound of his own intentionally missed free throw and rising through a crowd of players to drain a game-tying jump shot.
“I think it was just kind of lucky,” the 23-year-old said. “I just threw it up — I was kind of lucky.”
Doncic scored seven of the Mavericks’ 11 points in overtime as they sealed the win, and departed the court to a massive ovation from the Dallas crowd.
“The history of the game is written by the players, and it was written again tonight,” Kidd said. “For a player to do something that’s never been done before — it’s hard to do. There’s been some great players before him.”
