The NBA world believes in the Dallas Mavericks. Luka Doncic may have been overlooked in the MVP conversation early during the 2023-24 season, but now everyone is talking about Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the Mavs. Dallas earned a big 96-93 Game 2 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday to even their playoff series with LA at 1-1, and the win inspired some intriguing comments from some of the most notable analysts in the NBA world.
“The superstars for Dallas stepped up, especially Luka,” Shaquille O’Neal said following the Mavericks’ win, via NBA on TNT. “When a superstar has a bad game, I’m always anxious to see the second game. He was very aggressive, he hit some tough shots. And this is what superstars do.”
Doncic scored 23 points and recorded nine assists and six rebounds. It was a superb effort for Luka, who also played well on the defensive end of the floor.
Brian Windhorst of ESPN thinks the Mavericks are the biggest threat to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference because of Doncic’s continued improvement on defense.
“I think it’s Dallas,” Windhorst said Wednesday. “Because of the maturity of Luka Doncic, I mean, this was probably the best defensive game he’s played in his career. The Clippers shot 2-17, I’m going to say this again, the Clippers shot 2-17 with Luka as the primary defender… He’s getting it done at both ends. Plus, the Clippers were throwing double-teams at him, he just handled it… This is a warning sign for the rest of the league that he’s developing like this.”
Mavericks receiving no shortage of attention
It is not all positive attention, however.
Charles Barkley had some constructive criticism for Doncic after the game. He believes Doncic should play more like his head coach Jason Kidd did during his legendary career.
“They could be so much better if they played at a faster pace,” Barkley said. “Luka kicked the ball… Jason Kidd was one of the best ever at kicking the ball ahead. You got to trust your other players. You got much better players with Kyrie, PJ (Washington), (Daniel) Gafford, and all those guys. He’s got to trust those guys more.”
Nevertheless, the majority of the attention that the Mavericks received after Game 2 was positive. JJ Redick recalled a podcast he had with Luka Doncic where the Mavs star discussed his defense.
“I know Luka came on this podcast a couple months ago,” Redick said. “I don’t know if he was joking because he is a sarcastic guy, but he tried to get me to push the agenda for him to make an All-Defense team… But how about the job that he did defensively, particularly in the fourth quarter when all their star players were targeting him. We’ve seen this stat floating around… The Clippers were 2-17 against him as the primary defender and when he contested a shot the Clippers were 0-11.
“As bad as Dallas looked in Game 1, Kawhi (Leonard) comes back for Game 2… Luka and Kyrie get it done.”
The series is far from over. Los Angeles features more than enough talent to challenge Dallas. Right now, though, the Mavericks have momentum and will play the next two games at home.
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