“Give him the MVP” – ESPN react to Luka Doncic scores 47 as Mavericks beat Rockets, win 7th straight

“Give him the MVP” – ESPN react to Luka Doncic scores 47 as Mavericks beat Rockets, win 7th straight

Couple weeks ago that our fearless producer Clark row asked me to do an essay to break down the MVP race two weeks ago I said only these three guys one of these three can win it it’s either going to be joic Shay gilis Alexander or Luca who was a decided

Third two weeks ago with what the Mavs are doing with what he’s doing the only knock you could really make against Luca’s MVP case was the team success component but now the Mavericks because of this ridiculous run 11 and one he didn’t play the night they lost they only need a 5

And three finish now to get to 50 wins and if he gets to 50 wins I genuinely do not know how as a voter you separate joic SGA or Luca donic he’s going to win his first scoring title and this season the three ball Luca donic he came into

This game shooting 38% on three it’s a career high it’s going to go up a tick or two after this shooting performance when Luc is making his three ball forget it like what can you do with it what can you do with him as a Defender if he’s

Making the three there’s nothing it’s it’s Easter you might can [Laughter] pray well Luca certainly loves a high-profile matchup and you could argue that’s what this was today not necessarily with where Houston is is currently in the standings but there were a lot of eyes on this a lot of

Interest in this with Houston uh coming out of nowhere and knocking on the door of the playin at the bottom of the standings and the Mavericks just you know continuing to get hotter and hotter and hotter so if he is looking for uh even more stages to take over the

Greatest showman putting on a show this certainly has to count for one of those Devon and and coming into the game questionable you know would would it team and and where they are right now and and needing to get it out of the play in you know he took upon this team

And just pretty much put an ownership on it from start to finish excellent in the first half but like Mark said when his three ball is going and you have to cover that much ground there’s not much you can do I mean he’s big and strong

Once he gets you on his side he keeps you in jail his ability to hit tough shots and we saw the circus shot with the underneath flip from almost three-point line but you know he just looked at in every match up that he got and the rockets allowed him to play

One-on-one with most of their guys and he won that match up time and time again with with relatively ease the way he’s attacking this defense and you know 12 rebounds seven assists I mean he was he was Dynamic tonight and just made a loud statement for the rest of the world when

Everybody was watching this matchup well you could also argue too that it looks like despite the fact that uh he’s banged up and has been at times all season long there have been days off the schedule has been favorable in terms of getting uh a day or two off and a

Quarter off if you’re going to uh you know blow a team out and he doesn’t have to play it seems like they have been able to manage Luca’s minutes a guy who was highest usage in the league for so much the majority of the Season he’s got

Kyrie to help in the fourth quarter he’s got the gaffords and the PJ Washington’s taking on bigger loads defensively it it feels like he’s got his legs and and your three-point shot is in your legs and look this is a this has been a weird trip because of the schedule it’s five

Games spaced out over 10 days and of course now with the Golden State we know this is going to be a makeup game for the just the horrifically tragic circumstances that the Warriors this game was supposed to be played earlier in the season and now Dallas will go

Back there Tuesday night to finish this road trip but I just feel like with what we’re seeing I never thought a 4-0 start on this road trip was in the cards even with a spread out schedule I didn’t to go into Sacramento and sweep those two to follow that up by

Beating the hottest team in the league I mean this is why it’s been weeks now that you hear these murmurings from people with other organizations Executives Scouts like the Mavericks have snatched a lot of attention they’re getting a lot of attention from people around the league

Who are looking at this team saying this is going to be a lower seed that we don’t want to see and I’m not even you know now they’re up to fifth I mean I you know I thought sixth was the you know the best case scenario and and even

That now is you know they could theoretically still keep moving up the ladder so uh it’s it’s truly been a second half surge of epic proportions and there must be a lot of credit given to the head coach Jason kid for the job that he has done uh getting this team to

This point let’s see what he had to say after their seven straight win yeah I think um you know on this road trip he’s been setting the tone early um and and as our leader um he came out and set the tone offensively um but I thought not just

Luca but the group um was ready you know to come in Houston’s playing at a high level they’ve won 11 in a row this was a good test for us uh but Luca got us off to a good start offensively but our defense um I thought the guys executed

The defense uh to to a te tonight and making sure the ball found other guys we knew that green was playing at a high level so we tried to just you know keep it tough on him knowing that he can make tough shots but um Luca again was Luca

What did you see on that one on hand shot when shot well we’ve been lucky enough to be around him for three years and we’ve seen him kick the ball in uh we’ve seen him shoot from half court full court sitting in a chair so um to see him do

That I don’t know if I think a lot of people got excited but I think at the same time every that’s LCA you know he’s always uh able to make tough shots um again Picasso when you give him the paintbrush he’s going to do something special and that shot was pretty special

The way he controlled the game in the first quarter I mean I was watching and I thought this could be his indan p real just the way he dominated pass yeah I think when you talk about the best player in the world um understanding that the time and and where we are in

The schedule and on this road trip he came out and showed why he’s one of the best in the world um he he set the tone offensively his voice uh you you could hear his voice um and then you know finding his teammates but uh again he he

Can he can put the ball in the basket and if they’re going to read him and play the defense that we saw tonight it’s up to him to do his job and he did that at a high level tonight and it wasn’t just little you got 2 Kyrie just talk about his

Contribution yeah Kai again the chemistry of playing off for one another one is going the other one is just uh hovering uh to wait his turn and and Kai I thought did a great job there in the second half of being able to play the one-on-one and being able to to score um

When those two don’t see double teams I think though you know kai and luuka take advantage of that and uh and Kai did that tonight um being that in the second half um to be able to you know get to the basket or take the three in Rhythm

But again that’s that’s what they been doing here of late is playing off of one another and Kai is playing at a high level uh but I know he’s not going to just talk about offense but his defense I thought was at a high level tonight um

Being able to ball pressure being able to get deflections uh and and being able to be in the right place at the right time I thought all five of those guys did a great job when I’m talking about the starters to set the tone defensively physicality was at a high knowing that

Houston’s going to scrap their small so I I thought again our did a good job 4 and0 on this road trip which was not an easy road trip to begin with and with one more difficult l what does it tell you about you know this team

Ability yeah I think um to that point we validated uh the Sacramento trip with this win um and then if you look at Utah we validated that win with the Sacramento game so now we go back to California where we just left and uh and play Golden State uh again golden state

Is fighting um for a playoff uh spot so um they’re playing well um they’ve been in this situation and so this should be a good test for us on Tuesday um being our last game we can’t look forward to going home we we got to be pros and

Continue to uh understand where we stand and what we’re fighting for Coach you didn’t see too much blitzing tonight but when teams do Blitz how do you feel like you guys have handled in the pocket making plays off the short goow yeah our bigs have been great all season we’ve

Seen the advant basketball um Gafford if he’s not finishing on the rim um dive or Gaff not finishing at The Rim those guys have been great at being able to find the corners or the slots just understanding the the the preparation of the rotations those guys have watched a

Lot of film and understand what’s coming and so I think they’ve done an incredible job knowing that Luca and KY are going to get double teamed does that the benefit of having Kyrie’s a screener in some instances where you know it’s hard to it’s hard when a big is making

Plays but when Point K is making moments yeah you know I think we’ve used Kai in that situation we we try to use uh everyone so that they can understand um that the situation the feeling of being able to roll that we’re not just one dimension a lot of times in the double

Team we don’t want to put Kai in that situation cuz we know they’re not going to leave so that just makes Advantage Basketball a little bit easier for us uh with PJ with uh with D Jones uh and others but uh again when G half catches

It in a paint his job is to go Score first and he did that tonight when you guys see J green how he was coming to this game players just accept that challenge they’re going to go out there and check it in yeah the team accepted that challenge he’s he’s playing at a

Very high level and uh we try to throw as many bodies and different schemes at him just to keep him off the off Rhythm uh he’s a guy who can make tough shots uh and he was playing I mean he was averaging 30 something a night so uh for

Our group to to hold him to 12 uh you know you got to tip your hat the guys really were uh focused and locked in on what they had to do tonight you guys are not tired for the P where just keep it going yeah we have no choice um we got

To finish this until the end of the season and then we’ll figure out where we are in the seatings thanks thanks Deon he said they executed the defensive game plan 2 at what areas jumped out to you the most Fore fore fore spee Fore spee hey the open speee I spee foree foree speech foreign speech foreign Foreign [Applause] foree spee Foree for hello He N He Oh [Laughter] E He E

“Give him the MVP” – ESPN react to Luka Doncic scores 47 as Mavericks beat Rockets, win 7th straight