Mavs win Game 5 thanks to Luka Doncic’s attention to the game rather than the officials.
Oklahoma CityLuka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks purposefully had no complaints on Wednesday night.
Doncic knew going into the crucial Game 5 against the Oklahoma City Thunder that he wouldn’t waste any time arguing with the officials.
Like Doncic always does, he let off a lot of steam during a heartbreaking Game 4 loss. But on Wednesday, he made the decision that happiness would characterize his strategy for winning this crucial match in the antagonistic Paycom Center.
“After the 104-92 victory that put the Mavericks within one win of the West finals, Doncic remarked, ‘Just focus on basketball. Recall my passion—the activity I enjoy doing. Simply engage in basketball.”
After laboring in the first four games of the series by All-NBA standards due to an injured right knee, a painful left ankle, and Thunder stopper Luguentz Dort’s suffocating defense, Doncic answered with his finest postseason performance to date. He finished with 10 rebounds, 11 assists, and 31 points.
Doncic spoke politely and briefly with the referees during his few interactions with them on Wednesday night. Throughout the game, which the Mavericks led for the last 43 minutes and 59 seconds, he refrained from arguing and squabbling.
I had a normal conversation with them without any complaints—nothing, Doncic said after scoring his third career 30-point triple-double in the postseason. I believe it was nothing at all—the entire game. I simply go outside and hoop. Enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself. I was grinning; that was the old Luka.
After losing the first four games of the series to 22.0 points per game on 39.0% shooting, Doncic changed his pregame routine by starting his individual warmup almost fifteen minutes earlier than normal. Doncic continued to drain jumpers, giving Mavericks forward Derrick Jones Jr. a positive feeling as he went through his warm-up.
It’s going to be a hard day for them. I was just sitting back, Jones remarked. I keep saying the same thing: ’77 is fantastic. You can’t stop him once he finds his rhythm and gets rolling.
Doncic quickly found his flow and scored the first basket of the match on a kiss-in, off-dribble fadeaway off the glass.
His next bucket was a 21-footer, which he fired because he thought the whistle would blow after Thunder forward Jaren Williams bumped him. Doncic looked at referee Kevin Scott when the ball smashed through the net, but he backed off silently to defend.
He did not waver in his dominance as a distributor and scorer. He made a few shots that stopped Oklahoma City’s momentum, most notably a step-back three over Dort from Doncic’s preferred left wing position right after the Thunder cut the lead to just ten points in the closing seconds of the third quarter.
Among his 11 assists were feeds to teammates that resulted in five dunks, four of which were alley-oops. The most fortunate of Doncic’s creations and crowd-drawings was Jones, who finished with 19 points on 7 of 9 shots and scored five times off of Doncic’s dimes.
Doncic shot 12-of-22 from the field, 5-of-11 from behind the 3-point arc, and 2-of-3 from the free throw line in the end. When questioned about why he was shooting so few free throws, he smiled and said he didn’t want to talk about it.
He is a person. When asked about Doncic’s remarkably composed demeanor, Kidd responded, He’s not a robot. At times, we just estimate that he will enter 30, 10, and 10.
You are aware of how taxing the playoffs are on the body and mind. Recognize before the game that you won’t be receiving any calls while traveling. You have to be able to play through it and comprehend it.
Doncic has talked with Kidd and fellow Mavericks player Kyrie Irving about not letting his annoyance at not receiving the foul calls he feels he deserves get in the way of his game.
Irving has made it clear to Doncic that the Mavericks perform best when the MVP candidate concentrates on the greater picture rather than getting worked up over calls that don’t go his way.
Irving, who finished with 12 points on 5 of 11 shots, said, I believe he can learn from this tonight as well as all of us and just continue to confirm to himself that when he is focused on just his game and he’s focused on doing the right things, then we flourish as a team.
When you go on about the officials, like the officials are flawless too, I won’t sit here and whine about him. I will not act in that manner. I was able to extend a small window of grace to my brother.
Although it’s sometimes essential to take criticism from the referees, I believe he struck a good balance tonight by concentrating just on getting us moving offensively, calling the appropriate plays, and ensuring that we didn’t take our foot off the gas pedal.
