Luka Doncic hailed an "amazing" night after surpassing Larry Bird with the 60th triple-double of his NBA career, helping the Dallas Mavericks crush the Utah Jazz 147-97 on Wednesday.
Doncic recorded the first first-half triple-double of his career at American Airlines Center, finishing with 40 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in just three periods as the Mavs dominated from the off.
The four-time All-Star brought up his 60th triple-double with just under a minute remaining in the second quarter, moving past Bird to go ninth outright in the league's all-time rankings.
Asked what it meant to surpass the Boston Celtics icon, Doncic said: "It's pretty amazing. I don't know what to say, honestly. We all know who Larry Bird is, so it's pretty special."
Kyrie Irving added 26 points for Dallas, who had their highest-scoring game of this season and came up two points shy of the highest-scoring game ever in regulation.
Dallas guard Tim Hardaway Jr., who added 17 points in 22 minutes on the court, said after the win: "Luka set the tone with that, knocking down shot after shot after shot… after shot after shot after shot! I thought he was going to go 50-20-20!"
While Dallas snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 12-8, putting them fourth in the Western Conference standings, the Jazz sit 12th at 7-14 after a performance which left coach Will Hardy furious.
"That was an absolutely horrendous performance," Hardy fumed.
"It seemed like the Mavericks were moving at a different pace than we were from start to finish."