3x NBA All-Star Luka Doncic is expected to not take the floor tonight for the preseason opener against Oklahoma City Thunder
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The NBA season is less than two weeks away. After three and a half months of waiting for the NBA action, the fans are happy with preseason bringing back some action. First, we saw the defending champions, the Golden State Warriors, make their way to Japan, and take on the Washington Wizards in a 2-game NBA Japan Games.
Since then, we’ve been seeing footages of training camps, and other teams playing their preseason openers.
We saw Luka Doncic in August-September, as he helped Slovenia make it to the quarterfinals of the EuroBasket 2022. He hurt his wrist during the tournament. However, after some days of rest, Doncic claims he’s all well now, and we see him having fun during training camp.
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Is Luka Doncic playing tonight?
Luka Doncic has had a busy summer. He led the Mavs to a Western Conference Finals run against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. After that, he didn’t have much time off, as he had to make his way to his National camp in order to prepare for the upcoming EuroBasket.
Since the tournament ended and he went home, Doncic had some eight days of rest before he flew back to Dallas. The head coach, Jason Kidd, doesn’t want to put any pressure on the young star, and said Doncic may miss the first two preseason games.
Luka Doncic, as expected, didn’t scrimmage or do drills during the open part of Mavs’ practice, but Jason Kidd said “he led on all the defensive drills today, so he was Luka.”
Also said Luka is “probably not participating for a game or two here in preseason.”
— Callie Caplan (@CallieCaplan) September 27, 2022
It won’t really affect Luka and his form, in all fairness, to miss a few preseason games. As of now, the Mavericks would look to have him healthy and prepared for the season, rather than make him play in the preseason.
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How would the Slovenian Sensation perform in the upcoming season?
Luka had a spectacular summer, as he led his national side to a quarterfinal berth in the EuroBasket. He had some record performances in the tournament, including his 47 point show against Rudy Gobert and France.
Luka Doncic put on a SHOW vs. France 🔥
47 PTS
7 REB
5 ASTAnd the most points scored in a EuroBasket game in 65 years 😤 pic.twitter.com/7ioavqYaB9
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 7, 2022
Doncic averaged 26 points, 7.7 rebounds and 6.6 assists per contest in the FIBA tournament.
As for the upcoming season, everyone, including the NBA GMs are expecting big things from the 23-year-old. In the recent GM survey, Luka was the favorite to win MVP in the upcoming season.
NBA GM’s vote (48%) Luka Doncic as the favorite to win MVP this season. 🍿🔥
(https://t.co/xkq3BkF00C) pic.twitter.com/W1I41PWxxw
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) October 4, 2022
I mean, if this doesn’t tell you what one can expect from Luka in the coming season, I don’t know what can.