Luka Doncic restores Dallas' ambitions and Bogdan Bogdanovic rekindles the Hawks / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: USA Today Sports, AP, ZUMAPRESS.COM – Scanpix Credit USA Today Sports, AP, ZUMAPRESS.COM – Scanpix

The trade deadline and the All-Star break are now over, and we are now cruising towards the last part of the regular season in the NBA. As some teams are trying to make required adjustments for the post-season, the strive for playoff spots is in full throttle.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Team:Milwaukee BucksPosition:PF, SFAge:27Height:211 cmWeight:98 kgBirth place:Athens, GreeceProfileNewsStatistics

Amongst the new acquisitions,Kristaps Porzingis made his debut for the Washington Wizardsto lead them against with 25 points.Davis Bertans, the other Latvian who headed to the Mavericks withSpencer Dinwiddiein exchange with Porzingis and the Wizards, also finished his drought for points in the game against Sacramento.

After the departure ofDomantas Sabonis,Goga Bitadze capitalized on the absence of Myles Turner with the best night of his NBA career against the Wizards; he scored 20 points with the perfect 7/7 from the field.

All these efforts did not lead thePacers to a win, and intriguingly, Bitadze was on the bench for most of the 3rd quarter after scoring 17 in the first half. But regardless, all these numbers gave a good case regarding the Georgian center's improvement.

In late February, Goran Dragicalso returned to the court in theBrooklyn Nets jersey, after 4 months of absence and some trades and waiver buy-outs.

Bojan Bogdanovic once again proved how dangerous he could be beyond the arc, as he broke the Utah Jazz franchise record with 11 three-pointers sent against the OKC. That gave him 33 of the season-high 35 points.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, on the other hand, had an all-winning week with the Bucks, but the game against the Suns was perhaps the most crucial victory of all. 19 points from the Greek Freak might look humble with his 3 blocks in the second half, and 6 assists showed the different ways renders Giannis as impeccable.

Jonas Valančiūnas

MIN:30.98PTS:17.76 (60.25%)REB:11.57As:2.48ST:0.48BL:0.86TO:2.5GM:58ProfileNBA2021/2022

And, of course, there could be no weekly review without Nikola Jokic. The Serbian center, after an amazing game against the Pelicans, once again put himself into the history books with a 45+ point triple-double with 70%+ shooting from the field, which happened only the second time in the entire history of the NBA (Wilt Chamberlain).

Doncic Re-configures Dallas Seasons Targets

At the beginning of the season, many people doubted that Dallas Mavericks are playoff materials. Now, they are chasing Utah Jazz for a Top 4 finish in the West.

The main factor behind this resurgence is no other player than Luka Doncic.

The Slovenian magician continued his huge momentum last week and led the Mavericks to 3 more wins since the previous Sunday. All of them had varying stories in it, though.

Mavericks pulled off a great comeback win against the Golden State Warriors, despite trailing 21 points during the game and 19 points at the beginning of the 4th quarter.

Interestingly, Doncic was on the bench for the most part of the famous comeback period while trade-deadline acquisition Spencer Dinwiddie was providing his best vibes for a long time.

But when Luka came back in the last 5:30 minutes of the 4th quarter, he knew exactly how to solidify this great win: drawing fouls, hitting free throws, collecting rebounds, and feeding teammates.

Doncic finished that game with 34 points and 11 rebounds, and nobody remembers the 9 bad turnovers he committed during three quarters.

After turning 23, he started the Lakers game even better than usual: 12 first-quarter points. (he averages 9.1 first-quarter points, which is the best in the NBA).

The Mavericks let Lebron James and co. erase 21 point deficit in 12 minutes, but once again, Luka came onto the center stage for the proper closure: 7 crucial points in the last 6:13 minutes made sure that the Mavericks winning series was intact.

GSW re-match game was a similar story. Dallas was lifted by 19 points 4 rebounds showdown by Doncic in the opening quarter, but they almost blew the big lead. Once again, he gave the fatal blow to the GSW with his 39th and 41st points late in the 4th and made sure that the opponent can never recover again.

Doncic had to miss the game against Sacramento Kings on the weekend, but Dallas made it four wins in a row and 10 in their last 12. Next target: Toppling Utah Jazz for home-court advantage in the playoffs series.

Bogdan Bogdanovic rekindling Hawks' comeback

Last season's almost miraculous mid-season recuperation to reach the Eastern Conference finals is not something that you can repeat every season, but the Hawks have some reasons to believe.

Like Bogdan Bogdanovic.

After the All-Star break, the Serbian shooting ace averaged 20.6 points on a 38% 3-point accuracy, which are the figures that Hawks was sorely missing in the first half of the season from him.

Bogdanovic gave a big help to his team against the Celtics when Trae Young became pacified against currently the most efficient defense of the NBA.

Celtics managed to hold the Hawks with only 33 points in the second half, where Bogdanovic fought bravely and scored 15 of them, culminating in a total of 25 points and 3 assists for the entire game. It was not enough for a win, though.

In the next game against the Bulls, Bogdanovic accompanied Trae Young to build a lethal perimeter partnership when it mattered the most. His 13 points with 3 clutch threes in the 4th quarter brought Hawks back to life for a win. This game added to the series where Bogdanovic scored 20 points or more, 6th time in his last 10.

The game against the Wizards was tight, and his effort was a little bit messy at the end of the game. Nevertheless, Bogdanovic kept the Wizards' comeback attempts at bay in the 3rd quarter with four big buckets, the last one being a buzzer-beater at the end of the period. He finished that one with 17 points, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

Such a crucial win because the Wizards are among the opponents of the Hawks for the play-in spots.

In February, Bogdanovic averaged 17 points coming off the bench with 30 minutes per game, his 3 point shooting is 38% in 2022 and 42% in the last 10 games. He is getting hotter and hotter for the crucial stages of the play-in/playoff race.

Valanciunas and The Defensive Improvement

Who is the most in-form team in the post All-Star weekend? Well, not many would expect New Orleans Pelicans, but with 101.3 defensive ratings (per 100 possession), they are the ones, actually.

And Jonas Valanciunas, who is currently having his best season in the NBA, is playing a big part in this success, albeit a little bit unexpectedly.

It is hard to convince people after the night when Nikola Jokic made a historic 46 point triple-double against the Pelicans. Still, actually, the Serbian MVP got slowed down by the efforts of Valanciunas in the 3rd quarter and left 1/4 from the field before he got benched.

Valanciunas was also dealing with foul problems in the 4th quarter and still did not let Jokic score more than 6 points on him until being fouled out.

The Joker being the Joker, he scored 9 clutch points thereafter over Hernangomez to finish the Pelcans' 4 game-winning run in overtime.

In a wider perspective, Pelicans are giving 7.7 less points per 100 possession when Valanciunas is on the court, which is the best figure in his team regarding the category. (per Cleaning the Glass).

Also, the much-advanced RAPTOR index (of fivethirtyeight.com), as well as the LEBRON index (of bball-index.com), points in the same direction where only defensive specialist Herbert Jones is beyond Valanciunas when it comes to defensive contribution.

The stats might not tell everything, and he still might not be a killer rim protector (he rarely blocks), but at least he can be somehow disruptive and comply with the teams' late surge in the defensive game.

The Lithuanian center's enhanced effectiveness in his offensive end of the court is well-documented for this season. He was even called "Dirk" Valanciunas by his coach at one point as a result of his successful transformation as a sharpshooter big player earlier in this season.

His sharpshooting behind the arc got loosened a little bit (although he is shooting 37% from 3-point range, career-best), but he keeps helping Pelicans to go on with their hot streak by averaging 15.4 points and 12.2 rebounds in his last five games.

During last week, Valancuinas reached his 39th double-double of the season after strong displays against the Suns, Kings, and Lakers. Currently, he sits 4th in the entire NBA regarding this category.

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