Mavericks’ Luka Doncic hit with Shannon Sharpe truth bomb after Game 4 collapse

On Monday evening, Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks had a golden opportunity to go up three games to one in their Western Conference playoffs semifinals series vs the Oklahoma City Thunder, leading by eight at home in the fourth quarter. Instead, the Mavericks collapsed down the stretch, and Doncic put the cherry on top of yet another poor shooting performance by missing the first of two crunch time free throws that could have tied the game with just seconds remaining.

This entire playoffs so far this year with the exception of a couple of games have been a disaster for Doncic, who appears to be playing hobbled save for the moments he animatedly demonstrates things to the game officials, and one person who is concerned about the Mavericks’ prospects moving forward due to the struggles of their superstar is former NFL tight end and current sports media personality Shannon Sharpe, who recently took to ESPN’s First Take to relay his concerns.

“If you look at the way this series has played out in four games, PJ Washington has been their best player, and therein lies the problem,” said Sharpe, via First Take on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “When you’re counting on Kyrie and Luka to do the heavy lifting and then PJ pitches in, he’s been doing the heavy lifting. If you look outside of Game 2, Luka has not played well. For whatever reason, Kyrie can’t get it going in the first half, he turns it on in the second half, but last night in the second half, he only gave you nine total points. That’s not good enough.

And this was the second best team in clutch situations. You’re down by five in the last five minutes of the game, and last night they gave it up.”

A missed opportunity

While taking a commanding 3-1 lead would not have won the series for the Mavericks, it would have gone a long way in helping the team secure their second Western Conference Finals appearance in three years. Instead, the Mavericks now have relinquished home court back to the Thunder, whose home arena is sure to be rocking for Game 5 on Wednesday evening.

It was quite jarring on Monday evening to see the combined ineptitude of both Doncic and Irving, who have made reputations for themselves as stone cold killers in the clutch but who could not throw a grain of salt into the ocean down the stretch on Monday night, including Irving missing multiple floater shots from in close that are usually automatic for one of the greatest finishers at the rim in NBA history.

In any case, the Mavericks now just have one off day to regroup before taking the floor back in Oklahoma City on Wednesday evening. History says that the winner of that game will have over an 80% chance to win the series.

Game 5 is set to take place at 9:30 PM ET from the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City and will be carried nationally by TNT.