Luka Doncic does not shy away from tough defensive matchups, especially when it’s LeBron James or any other great player in the league.
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Dallas Mavericks have been extremely consistent after the Covid outbreak. They climbed their way up to the Top 4 teams in the Western Conference. 22-year-old Luka Doncic has been in the MVP conversation since his rookie year and lived up to all the expectations.
They are not a championship team yet but a considerable threat in the playoffs, especially with Luka Doncic playing the way he is. They pushed the Los Angeles Clippers with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard to 7 games last season.
If Spencer Dinwiddie’s leap with the Mavs translates to the playoffs Luka Doncic will reach the second round for the first time in his career. It was a lack of help from Porzingis that shattered their postseason hopes until last year.
Luka Doncic seeks matchups against the best players
Luka recently appeared on JJ Redick’s podcast where he discussed his journey in the NBA so far and how it’s different from Euro League. The two shared the court last year in Redick’s final season in the league. As a result, he got a closer look at the young superstar as his teammate on the Mavs.
JJ wanted to know what drives Luka Doncic to seek defensive matchups against some of the NBA’s greatest players like LeBron James and Stephen Curry down the stretch.
“It’s because the best players they gotta work on both ends you know. You just gotta make them work on both ends. Like they bring me up maybe not because I’m a good player maybe because they think I can’t play defense.”
For the 22-year old it is a smart strategy and necessary validation at the same time. When the best players in the league are on him, the 3x all-star is motivated to score.
Luka says, “You know you just want to make him tired working on both ends of the floor and just go at him you know. When you have the best player on you it’s like you want to score so I mean it’s like a proud moment too.”
The Dallas Mavericks have a near-perfect record in March with Luka dropping 30+ every other night. Their only loss came to the New York Knicks but they defeated Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, and the improved Boston Celtics during this stretch.
Luka has a chance to take on MVP frontrunner Joel Embiid in the next game. And now that he has revealed his strategy we can hope to see some incredible one-on-one moments between two.
