The Dallas Mavericks haven’t been too bad so far this year. Yes, they stand just 9th in the West right now, with a record of 9-7. But, it is common for good teams in the NBA to suffer from bad starts to the season. And given that they have won 6 of their last 10 games, things do seem to be on the upswing.
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Even their most recent loss, a 98-97 defeat to the Nuggets, was just a shot away from having been won.
You see, with seconds to go in the match, Luka Doncic had a chance to win it. And perhaps despite his better judgment, he ended up taking a rather long shot.
Luka Doncic almost sank the logo game-winner 😬pic.twitter.com/ZI7TF3ZTXu
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) November 21, 2022
Sure, he may have made shots from that kind of range before. But, to win the game? While there was time to hunt for even a slightly better shot?
Yeah, this whole situation doesn’t look too great for the Slovenian Sensation.
However, there is another point about this play the NBA community has missed. And well, suffice it to say, it makes this whole situation look a whole lot worse than it does already.
Let’s dive into it, shall we?
There was an open shooter from beyond the arc when Luka Doncic took his contested logo three
Frankly, this wouldn’t have been a hard pass to make, especially be Luka Doncic’s standards. And yet, he chose to try a contested shot from the logo instead.
Before we say anything more though, we’d like to show you what we mean.
Most selfish player in the NBA pic.twitter.com/TXuAf2I5V5
— َ (@BolWrld) November 21, 2022
On the right side of your screen, with #10 on his back, you see Dorian-Finney Smith, a career 36% shooter from beyond the arc.
Heck, one more thing this image doesn’t mark, is Davis Bertans on the opposite side running into an open three as well. And that man has shot it at nearly 40% from deep for his career.
So that’s two options that looked really good on the surface.
However, what does looking a bit deeper into it tell us?
Luka Doncic’s decision to take a shot on his own despite the double team could still be the right option
To be clear here, we’d still say there was time to hunt for a better shot, something the man probably should’ve done.
However, his decision to take the shot for himself has more than a little merit.
Neither of Dorian-Finney Smith (33.8%) nor Davis Bertans (25%) has shot the long ball particularly well this season. And to add to that, Smith wasn’t having a good game either, going just 1 of 4 from beyond the arc.
Now, here it can also be said that Bertans was having an excellent game, having shot 4 of 5 from three. However, a long ball off the curl isn’t exactly an easy shot.
And more than that, it can be argued that given the defender to his left’s coverage, by the time he was able to find the space for the pass, there just wouldn’t be enough time to get the shot off.
But, more than anything else, Luka Doncic is the alpha on this team. And as is famously known, he clearly has the clutch gene in him.
If anyone is going to take a game-winning shot on the Mavericks, it is always going to be him.