Luka Doncic’s pregame warm-up for Game 4 of the Western Conference finals included a surprise:
Another first-team All-NBA honor.
The NBA announced Doncic earned first-team status for the third consecutive year less than an hour before the Mavericks’ tipoff against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.
Joining Doncic in the league’s best two-guard, two-forward, one-center lineup: Phoenix’s Devin Booker, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Denver’s Nikola Jokic.
Doncic matched Kevin Durant, Tim Duncan and Max Zaslofsky as the only players to garner three All-NBA First Team accolades before age 24 and joined Larry Bird, George Gervin and Duncan as the only players to make at least three All-NBA teams in their first four seasons since the ABA/NBA merger (1976-77), according to the Mavericks’ PR department.
All-NBA voting considers just regular-season statistics, and Doncic finished his fourth campaign among the NBA’s best.
He averaged 28.4 points, 9.1 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 1.2 steals in a career-high 35.4 minutes in 65 games. Among league leaders, Doncic ranked third in scoring, fifth in assists and 19th in rebounds, finishing top 25 in all categories for the third consecutive year.
Doncic, however, will be most proud of the Mavericks’ playoff run, snapping the franchise’s decade-long first-round skid with an upset run to their first conference finals since the 2011 championship.
About a half-hour after the All-NBA announcement, Doncic took the American Airlines Center court with the intent to extend his standout season even longer.