Luka Doncic and Wilt Chamberlain are the only players in NBA history to start a season this way

Luka Doncic joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only NBA players in history to start a season with eight straight games of 30 or more points after pouring 35 on the Toronto Raptors Friday night in a 111-110 victory. Of course, Wilt accomplished this feat twice: once to start the 1959-60 season, and once to start the 1962-63 season. In the 1962-63 season, Chamberlain started the year with 23 straight games of 30 or more points.

So it’s safe to say, we’ll stop covering this specific record simply because were Luka Doncic to match it, he’d have to keep scoring at this rate and play every game between now and the Suns match up on December 5th. That seems like a lot to ask for, even from Luka Doncic.

Doncic still leads the league in scoring with an even 36.0, putting up 2.4 points per game more than Giannis. While it hasn’t become expected by any stretch, it’s so preposterous that we’re going out of our way not to talk about it all the time. After all, the Mavericks just defeated the Raptors last night, and I did my best to talk about how everyone else on the team played really well and how great that was and valuable and important to the victory.

Luka Doncic scored 35 points on 15 shots and did a lot of demoralizing things to the stout Toronto defense. You’ve seen this shot already, but look at it again.

This is basketball wizardry and it should be appreciated and talked about until people don’t want to hear it anymore. It’s been a bad couple of weeks of NBA stories, stuff that I am grateful we’ve not had to cover. Instead, I want to celebrate the absolute bananas play of one Luka Doncic.

Considering the schedule the Mavericks have up ahead, he stands a very good chance of making it at least another few games of scoring 30 or more. We’ve already seen the Brooklyn Nets and Orlando Magic fail to stop him and they’re up next. Then, the Washington Wizards and the Portland Trailblazers, neither of whom have any defender who stand a chance against Doncic. The Clippers pose problems on paper and, well, so did the Raptors and how did that turn out? Then the Rockets and Denver twice. Boston is the one team I see defending Luka well and Doncic roasts the Celtics like Thanksgiving turkeys.

The point is, I’m enthused to see what’s next. Is he going to hit 23 straight games? I’d say no. But betting against Luka Doncic is stupid. Instead, I’m going to enjoy this, as we’re unlikely to see anything like this in basketball, ever again.

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