Luka Doncic takes Jason Kidd's challenge personally and leads the Mavs to defeat Magic

With Paolo Banchero unable to play for the Orlando Magic due to injury, the Dallas Mavericks defiantly beat the Magic on Sunday night at the American Airlines Center as Dallas won 108-85. Dallas had a really balanced attack offensively in this contest and had great two-way play with their two centers, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford, as the big duo finished this contest with 29 combined points and 19 combined rebounds.

The Magic struggled with shot creation in this game without Banchero, and the Dallas bigs did a great job controlling the paint on the occasions where Magic players were able to score an attempt at the rim.

Just like last Thursday night's loss to Houston, Dallas struggled to get Klay Thompson open in this game, and Orlando didn't choose to trap Thompson at all in this game.

But even though Thompson only scored nine points on 4-for-10 field shooting in this game, Thompson didn't force anything and played with the flow of the offense.

Dallas doesn't have a Klay Thompson problem at all, but they did struggle to get off to good starts offensively early in this game, particularly in the case of Luka Doncic.

Last Thursday against the Rockets was the epitome of this issue that plagued Doncic at various points last season as well as the first few games of this season, as Doncic forced tough looks from outside and was inefficient in the first half of this contest.

However, in the first half against the Magic on Sunday night, Doncic had 25 points on 9-14 shooting as he routinely hit 3-pointers from outside and was hit in the post with his footwork.

For the Mavericks to reach their potential this season, Doncic will need to get better starts like this more often to help Dallas' offense get into rhythm more quickly. Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd also stressed the importance of this in a pregame interview, and Kidd's wishes were granted after Dallas led 65-40 at halftime.

With this game taking place on the first night in a row, it is extremely relieved that Dallas was able to get their first stunning win of the season on a night like this. Doncic finished with 32 points in that contest, although he easily could have had more if he hadn't had the luxury of being subbed off early since Dallas was so far ahead.

Aside from Doncic, none of Dallas' other starters played more than 29 minutes in this game. If Dallas takes care of business with confidence tonight, hopefully they'll be a little more energized when they take on a hungry 2-4 Indiana Pacers team tomorrow night on the second night of this matchup.

The Mavericks are talented enough to pull off wins if Doncic gets off to a rough start if he redeems himself in the second half like we've seen this season, but Doncic can do himself and the team a lot of favors by He values ​​a good start, hot starts like tonight, as the benefits are usually immense.