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DALLAS — You have to go back to Feb. 13, 2008, to find the last time a Utah Jazz player had a triple-double in a regular season game.
On the night, Carlos Boozer had 22 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists to lead the Jazz to a win over the now-departed Seattle Supersonics.
One day, we'll bring up that now infamous occasion due to the Jazz finally breaking their long triple-double drought. But, alas, it is not today.
The Jazz have gone nearly 16 calendar years since a regular-season triple-double. Luka Doncic had one in the first half Wednesday in Dallas.
Doncic had 29 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists by halftime. As if that wasn't enough of an indication, things didn't go well for Utah on its quick trip to Texas. Spurred on by Doncic's historic performance, the Mavericks made easy work of Utah with a 147-97 victory.
No, that's not a typo. The Jazz lost by 50.
The 50-point defeat was the second-biggest loss in Jazz franchise history and tied for the largest since the team moved to Utah in 1979. Coincidentally enough, the other 50-point defeat came at Dallas back in 2018.
"That was an absolutely horrendous performance from start to finish," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "That was a masterpiece of dog (expletive)."
Hardy's had some good quotes this season; that one is his best. And it perfectly sums up Utah's night.
The Jazz were without Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, and Kelly Olynyk, but it's difficult to imagine those guys changing such a lopsided outcome. Utah was down by 17 points before the game was even 10 minutes old.
Right from the jump it was the Luka show.
Doncic finished with 40 points on the night, but it was the first-half performance that was showstopping (almost literally — Dallas led by 23 points at the break and the game never became competitive in the second). The perennial All-Star joined Russell Westbrook, Domantas Sabonis and Nikola Jokić as the only players since 2000 to have a triple-double by halftime in a game, and was the first player since at least 1996-97 (when the data started to be tracked) to have a 25-point triple-double in a half.
And, yes, he was gunning for it as the second quarter was coming to a close.
"Of course. I was going for that last rebound and assist," Doncic said.
The final assist was an alley-oop lob with 58 seconds left in the half.
The closest thing the Jazz got to showing some competitive juice in the second half was when Kris Dunn walked up to Doncic and pointed a finger in his face. Doncic just smiled as the two were broken up; both players received technicals.
"I just laughed, so I don't know how I got a tech," Doncic said. "Those things just happen in the game. It's part of the game. I didn't do nothing. I don't know why I got a tech."
That was the most interesting thing that happened after halftime as Dallas' lead grew to 30 to 40 and finally to 50.
"It's hard to place what the reason is, but it seemed like the Mavericks were moving at a different pace than we were from start to finish," Hardy said.
Dallas hit 10 more 3-pointers than Utah and forced 19 turnovers in the blowout. It was the Jazz's fifth straight defeat on the road, and it dropped Utah to 7-14 on the season.
"We're always in this together," Hardy said. "They know that I'm in it with them. I'm gonna go back to work tonight and try to figure out ways that I can help them moving forward. We win together, we lose together. So after a game like that, there's not much needs to be said."
Was there any silver linings from the 50-point rout?
Taylor Hendricks looked comfortable in his 25 minutes; the rookie had 10 points, two rebounds, and two steals. Ochai Agbaji had 21 points on 5-of-10 shooing in one of his best offensive showings of the season. Oh, of course, there was the quote of the year by Hardy.
He's hoping there's not any more of those types of masterpieces in the future.
