Trailing by three in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks had just over four minutes to determine the fate of their season.
Dallas was either going to rise to the occasion to pull within 2-1 in the series with another home game on deck, or it was going to fade once again, putting itself in a position that no team has ever been able to get out of.
After dropping Games 1 and 2 in Boston, Dallas fell into a 3-0 hole on Wednesday by letting the Celtics escape with a 106-99 victory. Teams that lose the first three games of a best-of-seven playoff series are 0-156.
It’s shocking that the Mavericks only lost by nine considering Boston was up 91-70 following a Derrick White 3-pointer with 11:07 left in the game. Dallas proceeded to put together a ferocious rally, and it was within 93-90 after Kyrie Irving sank three free throws with 6:11 to go.
Irving later made it a one-point game with 3:37 remaining, but what happened in between his foul shots and his jumper essentially sealed the victory for the Celtics.
Mavericks star Luka Doncic fouled out at the 4:12 mark, putting himself in a mediocre guarding position—at best—near the perimeter as Jaylen Brown tried to drive toward the basket. Doncic was called for a blocking foul, then screamed at his bench in the hopes that coach Jason Kidd would challenge the call.
“I don’t know. I don’t want to say nothing,” Doncic said when asked about the foul calls against him over the final 12 minutes of action. “You know, six fouls in the NBA Finals… C’mon, man. Better than that.”
Were there some bad calls against Doncic on Wednesday? Sure. However, he and every other player in this league have fallen victim to an unfavorable whistle from time to time. The winners battle through it, and the losers don’t.
Don’t get us wrong, Doncic has all the talent in the world on the offensive end. But if he truly is a winner, don’t you think his individual production should have led to far more team success by now?
Now with five full seasons under his belt and the sixth about to conclude—really, really soon—Doncic had taken Dallas to the Western Conference finals just once prior to this year. Once the Mavericks got there, they lost to the Golden State Warriors in five games.
The defense has been absolutely atrocious, and unfortunately for Doncic, teams don’t raise banners just because a player performed well offensively in the Finals.
Luckily for Doncic, time is on his side. He’s still only 25, and barring something crazy, you’d have to imagine he reaches the Finals again someday. However, this series, specifically Game 3, has made it evident that a lack of maturity is holding him back from reaching his full potential.
There’s a long list of players in the NBA who just don’t know what it takes to win, no matter how well they play. Doncic is showing warning signs of being that kind of player, like the Russell Westbrooks, Chris Pauls and Damian Lillards of the league, just to name a few.
Should Doncic ever be lucky enough to get back to this stage, the defense needs to be better, the whining and complaining needs to stop, and there needs to be some accountability for costly mistakes, such as fouling out with your team’s season on the line.