Dallas Mavericks crushed as Luka struggles with conditioning, lack of star treatment
Bears repeating — sports without fans rhymes with ducks.
The Dallas Mavericks opened their home 2020-21 schedule on Wednesday night with a few of us lucky souls allowed in to watch the game against the Charlotte Hornets.
You didn’t miss anything, but there were a handful of developments from the Mavs’ 118-99 loss to the Hornets, starting with a superstar who is in offseason shape.
“Ugly night,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said after the game. “Not a whole lot else to say.”
Not if you’re the head coach.
We keep forgetting Luka Doncic is 21, but games like Wednesday show this is hardly a finished product, all the way around.
It would help if he was in regular-season shape, which is he not. That does not make him unique, but that is the problem — he is unique.
Scoring 12 points in 24 minutes is pathetic for a player like Luka Doncic.
After the game, Luka was on the floor taking various shots with three Mavs assistants until almost 11 p.m. It was actually impressive to watch him work in an empty arena.
“It’s clear Luka doesn’t have his rhythm yet,” Carlisle said. “Everyone is working through something.”
Like, conditioning?
“I’m not going to get into a thing about conditioning or whatever,” Carlisle said, with his usual charm.
That’s a yes.
“We got our asses kicked,” Carlisle said. “It wasn’t fun.”
After the game, Doncic admitted his legs are still tired.
“It was hard to practice in Slovenia. Everything was closed, but gyms were closed,” Doncic said. “No excuse. Still a lot of people trying to get into rhythm.”
Another thing Luka is working through, while he’s one of the NBA’s stars he’s not being treated as such by the referees.
There is an understanding within the NBA that its best players receive special treatment, and Luka ain’t there yet. No amount of complaining, or whining, on his part is going to change that.
At the 2:25 mark of the first quarter against Charlotte, Luka was fouled at least twice on a drive to the basket. His defender was late and fouled him; a second defender reached in for a steal and fouled him.
No whistle either time.
Doncic still managed to get to the basket with an awkward shot attempt, but was called for a charge as a third defender finally was able to stop him.
That was the one call the refs called correctly in that sequence.
Doncic was clearly, justifiably, an unhappy man.
Rather than rip his jersey, or kick the ball into the empty stands, he went to the end of the bench with his second foul to pout.
As the Mavs inserted Dorian Finney-Smith into the lineup, Doncic walked along the sideline to lobby (complain?) to the referee. Didn’t do any good.
Doncic would not re-enter the game until the 7:05 mark of the second quarter.
The Mavs were so awful defensively on Wednesday night that Doncic picking up his second foul late in the first quarter made zero impact on the final score.
But all of this has to change.
He ain’t fat, and he’s not in NBA regular-season shape yet.
We are watching what looks more like preseason basketball, but all of this counts as the regular season.
The NBA’s non-existent offseason has consequences, and we are watching them in real time.
The Mavs would normally play five preseason games. This “season,” they have played a total of seven games combined.
A few days after defeating the LA Clippers 124-73, the Mavs trailed the Hornets by 31 points with 2:55 remaining in the third quarter.
The Hornets are owned by Michael Jordan, but he’s not playing for them.
Despite some offseason changes to improve what was a bad defense last season, the Mavs are still a substandard defensive team that will rely on scoring to win.
And they can’t score as much as they need if their best player is on the bench in foul trouble, or not in shape.
This story was originally published December 31, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
