In 2024, Luka Dončić led the league in scoring, averaging 23.6 field goal attempts per game, making 11.5 of them, and shooting an efficient 48.7% from the field.
Dončić’s prolific 2024 season was supported not only by high shot volume but also by high efficiency. He led the league in field goal attempts per game (23.6) and also made field goals per game (11.5). Maintaining a 48.7 field goal percentage on that volume is remarkably impressive.
Dating back to the 2000-01 season, only 17 players have averaged 22.0 field goal attempts per game while shooting at least 45 percent from the floor. On that list, Dončić’s 2024 ranks fourth in terms of field goal percentage while maintaining that shot volume. Interestingly, Dončić’s 2023 season ranked second when he shot 49.6 percent from the floor.
Dončić wasn’t just the league’s best scorer in 2024, though. He impacted the game in every facet. He fell just short of averaging a triple-double with 9.8 assists and 9.2 rebounds per game. Since 2000-01, only Dončić and Russell Westbrook (2016-17) have put up at least 30 points, 9.5 assists and 9.0 rebounds per game over the course of a full season.
Luka had some truly unbelievable single-game performances that season. He had 49 double-doubles and 21 triple-doubles to go with two 50-point games and an additional 11 40-point games. In January of 2024, Dončić had a career-high 73 points against the Hawks in a 148-143 win. He was 17-for-20 from the floor and 15-for-16 from the line while adding 10 rebounds and seven assists.
There have only been 15 70-point outings in NBA history. Interestingly, Embiid had a 70-point outing of his own just four days before Dončić dropped 73 on the Hawks. There were two such games the previous season (Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell), and before that, Devin Booker’s 70-point game in 2017 was the only such game since Kobe Bryant’s famous 81-point game in 2006.
Not surprisingly, Dončić’s incredible season led to the Mavericks being a dangerous team in the playoffs. Though the Mavericks were only the No.5 seed in the West, they conquered their challenging path and made it all the way to the NBA Finals. The Mavericks took down the top-seeded Thunder in the Conference Semifinals and dispatched the Timberwolves in five games to make it to the Finals, where they would ultimately fall to the Celtics.
Dončić’s 2024 goes down as one of the most impressive scoring seasons this century. He’s one of six qualified players to average at least 33.0 points per game over a season. His 33.9 PPG ranks behind only James Harden (36.1 in 2019; 34.3 in 2020) and Kobe Bryant (35.4 in 2006) since the 2000 season.
