Doncic leads Mavericks to dominant win over Magic

Luka Doncic delivered 32 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in a “real fun” performance as the Dallas Mavericks cruised to a 108-85 victory over the Orlando Magic on Sunday.

Doncic scored 14 points in the first quarter to help the Mavericks to a 30-22 lead and they were 65-40 ahead at the break.

The 25-year-old Slovenian scored 25 first-half points, including five three-pointers.

“Today was real fun,” he said. “We were guarding everybody, defending, rebounding, playing with a lot of pace. So that’s fun for me.”

Dallas maintained their momentum in the second half and stretched their advantage to 82-52 on Doncic’s free throw with six minutes and five seconds to play in the third quarter and they led by as many as 33 points during the fourth quarter.

Daniel Gafford scored a season-high 18 points for Dallas while Kyrie Irving added 17 and Dereck Lively II had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

It was a third defeat in a row for Orlando who made just eight of 41 three-point attempts and are currently without All-Star forward Paolo Banchero, who has an abdominal muscle injury and is set to miss at least the next four weeks.

Elsewhere, the Detroit Pistons bounced back from a 30-point loss to the New York Knicks on Friday to claim their second victory of the season with a 106-92 success against the Brooklyn Nets.

Star guard Cade Cunningham led Detroit with 19 points, six rebounds and five assists and for the first time this season each Pistons starter scored in double figures.

In New Orleans, Jalen Johnson scored 29 points and Trae Young added 23 points, four rebounds, 12 assists and a steal as the Atlanta Hawks won 126-111 to hand the injury-hit Pelicans their first home defeat of the season.

Brandon Ingram led scoring for the Pelicans with a game-high 32 points.