Luka Doncic’s circus shot proves a game winner for Mavericks

DALLAS – As soon as the ball left Luka Doncic’s hand, Dorian Finney-Smith knew the Brooklyn Nets were in big trouble.

Finney-Smith feared the worst because he had seen his former Dallas Mavericks teammate make so many ridiculous shots, whether Doncic was messing around after practice or trying to score with a game on the line. This instance was the latter, and Doncic said that the go-ahead 3 he got on the glass with 26.1 seconds remaining Friday night was the hardest he’d ever made in a game.

With the score tied at 120, Doncic was forced to give the ball away twice in possession before getting it back from Maxi Kleber on the right wing with three seconds remaining in the shot clock. Finney-Smith and Royce O’Neale doubled Doncic, who had his back to the basket with Finney-Smith draped all over him. Doncic pivoted toward the sideline and, with a three-quarter arm angle like a relief pitcher, threw a high-arching hook that bowed for the game-winner.

“I saw there was about two or three seconds left, I gotta go,” said Doncic, who scored 14 of his 49 points in the fourth quarter, including four 3s in the final 2:59. “Better hit the rim so we can have a chance to get the rebound. I don’t know how I did it.”

The shot was so ridiculous that several Mavericks laughed and shook their heads throughout the ensuing timeout called by the Nets.

“I’ve seen it a million times,” said Finney-Smith, who played the first six and a half seasons of his career in Dallas before being traded to Brooklyn in February in the Kyrie deal Irving. “He’s playing and he’s honestly working on those shots. You can’t really blame him. I feel like we shouldn’t have let him get the ball. That probably would have been the better option. S — -, he I couldn’t even see the edge and he was the one who made this cup.”

Finney-Smith, who joked that he would refuse to discuss basketball when he met with Doncic for their pre-arranged post-game dinner, claimed that Doncic absolutely did not call on the miraculous winner of the match.

“Hell, no, he’s not calling for drinks,” Finney-Smith said, shaking his head. “He better not say he called the glass either.”

“It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen, and we needed it.”

Mavs Governor Mark Cuban

With a smirk, Doncic retorted: “I said it in Slovenian, so he wouldn’t understand.”

Mavs coach Jason Kidd admitted he called a timeout moments before Doncic scored the game-winner. Kidd thought Doncic was “stuck” and wanted to establish an out-of-bounds play, but luckily for the Mavs, the officials didn’t hear his request for a timeout.

“He’s a Luka special,” Kidd said. “He likes the ball late. He likes those situations, and he finds a way. The thing about Luka is he practices a lot of these crazy shots. Sometimes they’re on camera, sometimes just the human eye catches them Tonight was one of those shots, but he put us in position to get there.

Doncic, who also had 10 rebounds and seven assists with no turnovers, hit 16 of 25 from the floor. That included making 9 of 14 from 3-point range, setting a career-high for 3s with his stunning game-winner.

“It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Mavs Governor Mark Cuban said, “and we needed it.”