Luka Doncic struggles as the Celtics beat the Mavs to win the NBA title
The Dallas Mavericks couldn’t win a second elimination game in a row falling 106-88 to the Boston Celtics, who won the 2024 NBA title for their 18th championship as a franchise, the most in NBA history.
The Celtics beat the Mavs in five games as part of a dominant title run that saw Boston sport a 16-3 postseason record.
Doncic spoke about what made the Celtics so difficult to play.
“They were physical a lot. They have great defenders,” said Doncic, “They have been together for a long time, and they had to go through everything, so we just got to look at them, see how they play, maturity, and they have some great players. We can learn from that. We got to fight next season.”
Luka Doncic scored 28 points on 12-of-25 shooting with 12 rebounds, five assists and six turnovers in Game 5 as the Mavs fell behind early and were unable to make the game competitive after trailing by as many as 20 points in the first half.
Doncic had gotten off to quick starts in the finals, scoring in double figures in each of the first four games. However, the All-Pro struggled to score on Monday as he scored only nine points in the first half on 4-of-10 shooting while missing all three of his three-point attempts.
Postgame Doncic spoke about his pride in what the Mavs achieved this season.
I feel great. We did some great moves. I would say we’ve been together for five months. I’m proud of every guy that stepped on the floor, all the coaches, all the people behind. Obviously, we didn’t win [the] Finals, but we did have a hell of a season and I’m proud of every one of them,” said Doncic.
The Mavs offense struggled alongside him scoring 46 points at halftime and Josh Green was the only Dallas player in double figures with 10 first-half points and trailed 67-46 at the half.
Doncic and Kyrie Irving propelled the Mavs to their first NBA Finals since 2011 and the Slovenian superstar said they’ll be ready to fight again next season.
“Just having Ky on my team -- I mean, on our team, he’s unbelievable. Just help him. We said, We’ll fight together next season, and [we’re] just going to believe,” said Doncic.
The Mavs attempted to cut into Boston’s lead in the second half, but struggled against Boston’s defense, scoring 39 points in the second half on the way to scoring under 100 points for the fourth time in five games.
This story was originally published June 17, 2024 at 10:02 PM.
