Luka Doncic ‘exhausted’ as Mavs fall to Thunder despite record 30-0 run،
DALLAS — Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic was exhausted, emotionally drained, extremely proud and quite perturbed as he left the court at the American Airlines Center after a sensational and wild outing Saturday night.
One night after becoming a father for the first time, Doncic helped a short-handed Dallas team recover from a 24-point fourth-quarter deficit to take the lead, but the Mavs were unable to finish the Oklahoma City Thunder. Dallas’ 30-0 spurt — the NBA’s biggest run since at least 1997-98, according to the Elias Sports Bureau — and Doncic’s performance of 36 points, 15 rebounds and 18 assists did not not enough for the Mavericks. to avoid a 126-120 defeat against the Thunder.
“It was the happiest day of my life with the baby, but today’s game was also a big roller coaster,” said Doncic, who wrote the name of his daughter, Gabriela, on the one of his iconic Jordan Luka 2 shoes. “I’m so sad we didn’t win this game, but man, we gave a big, big effort.”
The Thunder responded to the Mavs’ massive run by scoring 15 of the game’s final 18 points, including the final 10. Doncic committed two turnovers in the final 87 seconds, including a roving call with 1:27 remaining that left him angry.
“I think it was probably a trip, but those trips happen, in my opinion, about 20 times a game,” he said. “So there’s a minute and a half left, if you call it a trip for the first time in the game, you can’t do that. I don’t think so. But I think these trips happen a lot of times in a game and the NBA doesn’t call travel, so I was really surprised.”
Mavericks coach Jason Kidd declined to comment on the critical call.
“I haven’t had a chance to watch it, so I can’t comment,” Kidd said. “I can’t afford to be fined at the moment.”
Doncic was even more outraged after Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams passed him for the go-ahead basket with 41 seconds left, as he thought Williams “did the exact same thing” without being whistled for a walk.
“So that pissed me off,” said Doncic, who angrily confronted referee Mitchell Erwin after the final buzzer before another official and Mavericks staff members got between them to prevent the situation from happening. degenerate.
Doncic took responsibility for letting his frustration affect his concentration in the final minute. Coming out of a timeout after Williams’ bucket, Doncic had an inside pass intercepted by Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who converted the turnover into a transition layup.
“This can’t happen,” Doncic said. “It probably cost us the game. The concentration should be there, but I was a little exhausted.”
It was a disappointing end to a spectacular effort from Doncic, especially considering the circumstances. He said he slept about four or five hours Friday night — by far his most in a few days — and had doubts at the start of the first trimester whether he would be able to handle his normal workload.
“So I just said [Kidd], ‘I’m doing well. Let me go,'” Doncic said, knowing the Mavs needed his dominance to have any hope of beating Oklahoma City with Dallas’ second- and third-leading scorers Kyrie Irving (foot) and Tim Hardaway Jr. ( back) among a handful of rotating players sitting on the bench in street clothes.
Doncic played 46 minutes, his record in a regulation game. His only rest came midway through the second quarter. He scored or assisted 81 points, the most of any player in a game this season.
Doncic joined Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson as the only players in NBA history to have multiple games with at least 35 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists, according to ESPN Stats & Information research .
Doncic, whose 59th career triple-double tied him with Larry Bird for ninth on the all-time list, accounted for all but three of the Mavs’ points during their 30-0 stretch. He scored seven points and dished out seven assists during the spurt, which started with Doncic finding two-way player AJ Lawson for a 3 to cut the deficit to 111-90 with 10:25 left and ended with Doncic making a transition layup on a steal to give Dallas a 117-111 lead with 4:18 to play.
“It was magical,” said Mavericks rookie center Derek Lively II, who had career highs of 20 points, 16 rebounds and 7 blocks while going 9 of 9 from the floor, including three pass dunks. from Doncic during the fourth quarter. . “I have to give him the ball. He’s going to do some magic.”
