Great Power & Great Responsibility: Luka Doncic Must Shoulder Blame for Dallas Mavs’ Game 4 Loss
Despite holding a lead for most of Game 4, the Dallas Mavericks crumbled in the final minutes against the Oklahoma City Thunder, resulting in a 100-96 loss and a 2-2 tied series.
Luka Doncic finished with 18 points on 6-20 shooting from the field and 2-9 from the 3-point line. It's no secret Doncic has failed to meet expectations in the 2024 postseason, and Game 4's meltdown magnified everything that is currently wrong with No.77.
Typically, when a player records a triple-double, you see hundreds of posts in celebration and NBA accounts acknowledging the feat. However, recording a triple-double on low efficiency along with seven turnovers renders such an accomplishment meaningless.
Doncic is averaging a playoff-career-low 22 points on 39 percent field goal shooting and 31 percent from deep — both career-low shooting percentages.
Admittedly, Doncic is playing through multiple injuries and showing grit each time he takes the floor, but his current level of play isn’t good enough to help the Mavs advance to the Western Conference Finals.
OKC wing Luguentz Dort has defended Doncic as if they were playing football instead of basketball. Anytime Dort encounters Doncic, it feels like two bulls locking horns. When dealing with such physical defense, recovering from multiple nagging injuries becomes almost impossible.
“I think there’s a focus on us," Doncic said of OKC's gameplan to load up on him and Kyrie Irving. "They collapse the paint very well. When we go drive it, and they collapse the paint, it’s almost five guys. So, I think that’s been difficult for us. We just have to find the open teammates.”
That said, this is the playoffs, and with great power comes great responsibility. Many players are suiting up despite enduring injuries and ailments, so that can’t be an excuse going forward… not if Dallas wants to advance.
Doncic is banged up, but he’s also playing below his lofty standards regardless of his knee injury. Both of those things can be true for the soon-to-be five-time All-NBA star. Shooting terribly is one thing, as it's clear Doncic doesn't have the lift to make 3-point shots consistently, but turning the ball over as many times as he did on Monday night is more mental than physical.
Doncic is averaging 4.25 turnovers through the first four games of the Western Conference semifinals. In Game 4, Doncic gave away the ball on seven possessions, more than half the Mavs' total as a team.
Of those seven turnovers, at least three were major mental lapses from the cerebral assassin. On one of the turnovers, Doncic bounced the ball off his foot. On another, he threw a pass directly into Chet Holmgren's hand from point-blank range. And on another, he poorly misread the defense from a semi-post position, resulting in a turnover and near-layup on the other end for OKC.
"Just go to the next game. It’s first to four," Doncic said of Dallas' mindset heading into Game 5. "Stay ready. It’s the same as after Game 1. You get ready, see the mistakes you make, and you go home.”
As bad as Game 4 was for the Mavs, and as poorly as Doncic has performed compared to what his high expectations were, there is no panic as Dallas tries to once again take control of the series on Wednesday night.
“No. No concern," Doncic said of going on the road for a pivotal Game 5. "Just gotta be ready. We gotta play hard like we did tonight. I think we played really hard. But like I said, some details cost us the game. We just gotta be ready again. OKC is going to be hard on the road, but we’ve done it before. We can do it again.”
For most of Doncic's career, the talk about his superb playoff performances has been followed by "if only his teammates showed up" or "he needs help," but now, it has been the opposite. Doncic is the one who must show up to support his team when they need him most.
For superstars, fair or not, the blame is placed squarely on their shoulders when they don't perform to the best of their abilities in disheartening losses. Regardless of injuries, Doncic must find a way to do better for the Mavs to win the series vs. the Thunder.
