The Dallas Mavericks All-Star Luka Doncic celebrated his 25th birthday with a majestic performance of 30 points, 16 assists and 11 rebounds in a 136-125 win over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday evening.
It was the 11th triple-double of the season for the Slovenian star, and ninth featuring 30 or more points.
"It's just a normal game," joked Mavs head coach Jason Kidd after the victory. "I guess 25 means he's still going to be really good as he gets older here."
The five-time All-Star did most of his damage in the third quarter, scoring 11 points, dishing out six assists, and grabbing five rebounds as Dallas outscored Toronto 40-25 down the stretch to turn a one-point halftime deficit into a 14-point lead.
With Doncic on the bench to start the fourth, Dallas did not miss a beat as guard Kyrie Irving scored 13 quick points in the first six minutes of the frame to sustain the lead at 14. Irving finished with 29 points on 11-of-20 shooting in the game.
The Mavericks also got a boost from recently acquired P.J. Washington, who drilled a game-high five 3-pointers to finish with 23 points. The forward joined Dallas after a trade with the Charlotte Hornets on Feb. 8 and has averaged 10.6 points and 5.1 rebounds in seven games.
Kidd is thrilled by how quickly Washington has been able to adapt to the lineup and hopes he can become the third scorer behind Doncic and Irving.
"When you have two dynamic players like Luka and Kyrie, who are going to get 20 shots, we would like to be consistent with our third (option)," explained Kidd. "I think P.J. is starting to trend that way. If we can count on that, it just puts us in a different category with three scorers."
With the win, Dallas improves to 34-25 on the season to sit seventh in the Western Conference, trailing the Phoenix Suns (34-24) and the New Orleans Pelicans (35-25) by 0.5 games.