It is not a good idea to make Dallas Mavericks’ superstar Luka Doncic even mildly annoyed.
Doncic is arguably one of the most exciting young premier players in the NBA with the 23-year-old Serbian looking like the next coming of Larry Bird. At 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds, the comparisons to Larry Legend are easy to make. Bird, though, had an attitude and swagger that we hadn’t seen from Doncic until Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals this year with the Mavericks taking on the Phoenix Suns.
The Suns won Game 5 110-80 and needed to win just one more of the two remaining games, with the last game of the series at home, it figured to be a foregone conclusion. The problem was that Suns’ shooting guard Devin Booker had made an enemy of Doncic. Booker was fouled hard while driving for the basket late in Game 5. He turned to the camera and unleashed the phrase “Luka Special”.
This was not Booker admiring Doncic’s game. This was Booker attempting to get under the skin of the Mavs’ star. Booker – you see – had flailed around on the floor for a few seconds mimicking a flop. Doncic has been accused (rightly in some cases) of hitting the ground a little too easily on the basketball court. The intent of the statement was clear and, while not entirely wrong, it was very, very ill-advised.
Doncic was a star already in the series but he took his play to the next level in Game 6. Whether he was fuelled by Booker’s jibe – or the premier player just decided to bring everything he had facing elimination two straight nights – Doncic completely took over. In Game 6, he secured 11 boards and scored a game-high 33 as the Mavs routed the Suns 113-86. The last game of the series, the vital Game 7, was expected to be far, far closer. It was not.
The half-time score was 57-27 in favor of the Mavs. Doncic – who had previously been 0-2 in elimination playoff games – had scored 27 of those 57. He matched the total of the entire Suns’ team on his own in the first half. It was a career-defining 30 minutes for the 23-year-old.
Booker, on the other hand, struggled in the two games. In Game 6, he scored 19 points but committed a season-high eight turnovers. In Game 7, Booker had just 11 points.
A side note to this story is that while the legacy of Doncic is just beginning, the legacy of Chris Paul in the playoffs continues to be a mess. Paul became the first player ever to blow 2-0 playoff leads in five best-of-seven series and Paul has now lost four straight Game 7s. It is a weird caveat to an outstanding career.
The story here, however, is Doncic. The Slovenian already has more NBA records than players with an entire career’s worth of work. He is a triple-double machine and – by all accounts – a model citizen off of the court who works to be a better basketball player every day. He’s also the Mavs’ career leader in triple-doubles as well, and it took him only 122 games to pass Jason Kidd.
Can’t wait to see how Doncic continues to contribute to the Mavs, the league, and to the fans because he definitely doesn’t display a “me-first” attitude.
By Premier Players Steve Wright