Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic finished the season as the NBA's leading scorer. He becomes the first player in Mavericks franchise history to accomplish this feat. That's saying something for a team that has been under threat to score for the past 40 years.
Doncic finished the season averaging 33.9 points per game. That's nearly four points more than the NBA's second-leading scorer, Giannis Antetokounmpo (30.4 points per game). Shia Gilgeous-Alexander rounded out the top three scorers with 30.1 points per game.
Unsurprisingly, Doncic also had the most total points in the NBA this season. With 2,370 points this year, Doncic was more than 100 points ahead of Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished the season with 2,254 points.
Doncic attempted two fewer free throws per game than last season, but his free throw shooting percentage increased by four points from 74 percent in 2022-23 to 78 percent in 2023-24. But the big improvement was in his 3-point shooting. He has increased his frequency, going from 8.2 attempts per game last season to 10.6 attempts per game this year. But even with the increased volume, he was able to increase his 3-point shooting percentage from 34 percent last year to 38 percent this season. It's actually an incredible accomplishment.It is difficult to increase the amount of shots and Increase efficiency.
Doncic set a career high in points this season with 73 points against the Atlanta Hawks. That's a crazy number when you think about it, but in retrospect, 73 points felt easy, and if the Hawks had pushed the Mavericks with a better team, Doncic could have easily scored a few more. I felt that.
Dirk Nowitzki, one of the best scorers in NBA history, has never been the league's leading scorer in a season. Part of that is due to the way Nowitzki plays, but it also proves how difficult it is to score the most points over an entire season in the NBA. Mark Aguirre, another talented scorer who played for the Mavericks, was also unable to accomplish that feat. The list goes on.
Doncic currently has four of the top five scoring seasons in Mavericks history. Given how easily he gets buckets, it's likely he'll get all of the top five in the near future.
