Explosion without miracle of Doncic

Luka Doncić hates to the Clippers. are your intimate enemytheir first rivalry in the NBA. He has gone to the playoffs twice and has lost both times, in the first round, against the Californians. This season he has played against them four times… and he can’t get rid of them: two wins per side, draw in regular season (2-2). Double duel, in Dallas and in 48 hours, and a victory by side. The Clippers, clinging tooth and nail to the season without Paul George or Kawhi Leonard, they found a way to win (97-99) in a horrendous game for three quarters… and very interesting at the end.

Reggie Jackson (24 points, 8 assists), a guard that went from star threat to starry and from there to risen at the Clippers, he tipped the game late. Or rather he put up with his team just enough when the Gale Doncic. The point guard scored the points that froze the local comeback (Doncic’s comeback, basically) and with eight seconds left, at 97-98, he received a throw-in and managed to sprint without being needed for almost five seconds. He only made a free throw (97-99) but left the Mavs without time, who they had a very distant final triple from Doncic. He did not enter, there was no miracle, the least bad guy won: 28-30 for the Clippers, clinging (lots of credit) to play in and that they won without newcomer Norm Powell. Y 33-24 for the Mavs, fifth in the West, now two and a half games from fourth and with one and a half on the sixth… and three and a half on the seventh: the repechage zone.

For more than three quarters, the Mavs were a horror (67 points at the end of the third quarter), 69 with eight minutes remaining (69-79). His interiors did not prevent a bleeding of points in his hoop, his secondary did not make shots, his bench stayed at four total points: 2 from Ntilikina, 2 from Green… with 2/11 shooting between them and 1-3 a head. Bad thing. On a bad day for Finney-Smith, which gets worse the more things he has to do, there were Bullock’s shots, Brunson’s general contribution… and Luka Doncic. Doncic’s overdose. Again. A story that begins to recur in Dallas, a dangerous script as usual and that it is hard to believe that, closed with failure the Porzingis stageis going to change a lot with those who have come from Washington, a Bertans denied in the shot (his only asset, moreover, to be on track) and a Dinwiddie without a physical spark after his last injury and who raises questions of coexistence with Doncic ( loves to amass possession) even before seeing them play together.

Doncic overdose: with the game lost, the Slovenian appeared. he was wrong, no energy or too much energy put into protesting the referees and messing with Terance Mann, a barnacle that once again drove him crazy. The Clippers bombarded him with aggressive assists and it worked…until the final eight minutes. There, beyond schemes and blackboards, Doncic unleashed the storm: 23 points until the end but, Oh, 23 of the 26 of his team. A triple by Bullock… and nothing else. The Slovenian scored the last 19 of the Mavs based on impossible triples and penetrations. He missed important free throws and ended up giving his team an unlikely chance to win — and visibly exhausted, too. He played almost 40 minutes and that final explosion put him in 45 points, 15 rebounds, 8 assists, 7 turnovers, 15/33 shooting, 6/13 triples, 9/13 free throws.

Is that sustainable? That is the question… and we imagine the answer. What the price is going to be on Doncic’s legs and how much help he’s really going to get, again, come the playoffs. In two games in 48 hours against the same opponent, Doncic (who has played 38 or more minutes in five of the Mavs’ last seven) has stacked 80 minutes on track and 96 points. He has scored 96 of the 207 of his team, an outrage, and the most by a player against the same opponent on two nights in a row since Wilt Chamberlain in 1967: 100 to Seattle in two nights. 96 points, 24 rebounds, 14 assists, another 14 turnovers, a quarter of 28 points to open the first game, one of 23 to close the second… and 59 shots (32/59), almost 30 on averageand a 13/27 in triples… That said, it is not ideal but the real question is if it is sustainable (and to achieve what), and more so now that Nico Harrison, the big shot in the offices, he has said that the template is a priori closed and that reinforcements will not be sought in the market of buyouts.

Doncic pulls the team, picks it up, carry him around, put him in a position to win even on nights when he shouldn’t have a chance. But his Herculean work, now that he is fine and in shape and that he once again has traces of an MVP contender (too late), it only serves to share two games, both at home, with some Clippers without their two stars. And to be in fifth position in the West. That is not bad… but it forces us to consider where this Doncic would arrive in better company and, above all, when will it be if you look at the latest movements of the franchise. meanwhile, whatThe court is back, and there are trances like those eight minutes in which Doncic almost won only one game that was lost and from which minutes before seemed disconnected. He’s that good, he’s that lonely. Right now, it is what it is.