Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis haven’t really had the dust-ups that Mark Cuban indicated they’re having – according to KP.
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The Dallas Mavericks are now practically sure of a 5th/6th placed finish in the Western Conference. This means that they’ll probably face the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.
Facing a team with Nikola Jokic will require the Mavs to display some good big man basketball. Kristaps Porzingis and Luka Doncic will be expected to do the bulk of the damage on the defensive end for them.
For this to happen, the duo needs to be on the same page. And for some reason, there’s been all this smoke regarding the equation between the Slovenian and the Latvian.
For example, there was a veiled dig by Porzingis a few months ago regarding how he hadn’t gotten a single in crunch time of a Mavs loss. Doncic had had a particularly dreadful shooting game that night.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban himself fueled this talk with his own take. The Shark Tank judge had spoken about ‘dust-ups’ between Luka and Porzingis recently.
Kristaps Porzingis refutes rumors of dust-ups with Luka Doncic
The 25-year-old big man has reassured Mavericks fans that all is well between him and Luka, on and off the court. Luka and Kristaps have been pretty good when sharing the court of late, adding believability to his statement:
“I’ve never had any problems with my teammates off the court, I’ve always gotten along very well with them. I don’t know what Cuban was talking about. I try to be as professional as possible.”
Kristaps Porzingis denies having ‘dust-ups’ with Luka Doncic
“I’ve never had any problems with my teammates off the court, I’ve always gotten along very well with them. I don’t know what Cuban was talking about. I try to be as professional as possible.”
(Via @Eurohoopsnet ) pic.twitter.com/oIilbA83LH
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) May 11, 2021
Now it’s possible that the two have had some heated words spotted by Mark in practice. But confrontations happen between teammates all the time. A good look at ‘The Last Dance’ should be enough to tell us all about teammates being professional but aloof off the court.