Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. NBA Playoff Basketball is afoot!
What Luka Doncic did in Game 4 is stuff made by legends.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin C. Cox/AP.)
It’s so easy to get caught up in all of it. The whole “recency bias” thing. And it’s fair that he doesn’t have a long body of work yet. But from what we’ve seen of Luka Doncic, how can you not be wowed?
We’ve all seen why he fell to the 3rd pick. Europeans are soft. He’s not athletic enough to make it in the league. The competition wasn’t “as good.”
But we’ve seen over the years that the rest of the world has caught up to America. Also, Luka is a solid 6’8″, 230-pound dude. By the way, the EuroLeague is the second best basketball league in the world. We’ve seen many NBA players come from there. Oh, yeah. He also won MVP in 2018. This was why he was so hyped up coming into the league.
Luka won Rookie of the Year as the Mavs improved by 9 wins (33-49). He would be joined by Kristaps Porzingis the next season. But the West was SO loaded that I foolishly thought they would win 34 wins.
Then again, he made a jump in his sophomore season. The greats just figure it out nearly immediately. He blew me away after a month that I suddenly clamored for him to win MVP. While it became evident that Giannis Antetokounmpo would win his second straight award, we could also see right in front of us how Luka has become arguably a Top 5 player in the league. I mean, 28.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 8.8 assists per game. He had 17 triple-doubles in this shortened season. What the heck?!
And then the legend grew when the playoffs started. He admirably put the Mavs on his back by scoring 42 points in Game 1 after Porzingis got kicked out of the game. He then handled the Clippers in Game 2 with 28-8-7. Then he sprained his ankle so badly in Game 3 that people thought it would be crazy for him to run in Game 4.
Porzingis was a late scratch and Luka gave it a go in Game 4. And, MAN, did he give it a go. Not only did he help bring the Mavs back from down 21 but he really did some badass stuff. He really took it to the Clippers. And when he got the switch he wanted, he went presidential on dat ass.
Watch This Play
WHAT THE HELL, MAN
LUKA CALLED GAME pic.twitter.com/g7URYgcAoE
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) August 23, 2020
Luka beat the buzzer against a powerful Clipper team. He went for 43 points, 17 rebounds, and 13 assists against one of the more vaunted defenses in the league. You are a nutjob if you don’t think Luka is great. It’s right there in FRONT OF US. He’s been doing it the entire time in his short career as a professional baller. THE WHITE BOY IS GOOD.
Even if the Mavericks don’t win the series (I’m NOT saying they won’t), it’s this kind of audacity that Luka brings that is giving him respect from all of his fellow pros. Luka will put it all on him. Luka will carry the team. Luka knows that he’s so good that he will just do everything.
Luka Doncic is good. No. Luka Doncic is great.
Bullet Passes
Luka rightfully gets all the headlines but OH MY GOD. That duel between Donovan Mitchell and Jamal Murray was just the best. In the end, it was the Jazz (and Mitchell) who came out on top. Donovan scored 51 points while Jamal scored 50. It was the first time in NBA Playoff history that players from opposing teams scored 50 or more each. Ridiculous.
Also, while we’re at it, Mitchell is the third player in NBA history to have multiple 50-point games in a playoff series. Michael Jordan did it against Cleveland in 1988. Allen Iverson took it to Toronto in 2001.
It’s not like Mitchell was setting the world on fire during the seeding games. But it’s like he flipped a switch when the postseason started.
With that said, it’s gotta be disappointing for Denver right about now. Yeah, they don’t have two key players in Will Barton and Gary Harris but Utah also doesn’t have their second best offensive player in Austin Croshere clone Bojan Bogdanovic.
Denver is not the most disappointing team in the postseason, though. Now we wonder about the Philadelphia 76ers as the Boston Celtics cleaned them off the bubble. Ben Simmons was gone the entire playoffs. And in a scary moment, Tobias Harris hit his head on the floor in an unfortunate accident during the game.
So we wonder. Is Brett Brown gone (who honestly lasted way longer than we thought)? Are they going to split Joel Embiid and Simmons? Is it time for a reprocess? Lots of questions to be asked here.
Don’t even get me started about Sam Hinkie.
It’s different for the Brooklyn Nets. They don’t have four of their best players. Then Joe Harris even left the bubble. They were just way shorthanded against the defending champions, whose bench put up 100 points against them. Yikes.
But as I mentioned before, we are getting Toronto vs Boston. The series starts on Thursday. Those two teams have never faced each other in the playoffs before.
Trey Burke should get props for producing for Dallas and possibly even saving his NBA career. He scored 31 points in the first bubble game for Dallas (signed as a substitute for Willie Cauley-Stein, who opted out). In Game 4 on Sunday, he went for 25 points. Luka gets all the headlines but Dallas doesn’t win without Trey.
I’m mixed with the Pandemic P name social media has given Paul George. At the same time, man, you shouldn’t give yourself stupid nicknames like Playoff P (which he did last year). That never ends well.
By the way, from Games 2 through 4, George is shooting 10 for 47 (.213). POP THAT P.
‘Twas Kobe Bryant‘s birthday on Sunday. It almost seemed like these ballers honored him by the way they played that day.
Donovan Mitchell (51).
Jamal Murray (50).
Luka Doncic (43-point triple-double.)
Lou Williams (36).
Caris LeVert (35).
Diana Taurasi (34).Happy Birthday, Kobe.
— 𝘙𝘦𝘺-𝘙𝘦𝘺 🤞🏾✌🏾 (@TheNoLookPass) August 24, 2020
NBA Playoff Scoreboard
Game 4: #3 BOS 110 vs #6 PHI 106 (BOS wins series, 4-0)
Game 4: #2 LAC 133 vs #7 DAL 135 (OT) (Series is tied, 2-2)
Game 4: #2 TOR 150 vs #7 BRK 122 (TOR wins series, 4-0)
Game 4: #3 DEN 127 vs #6 UTA 129 (UTA leads series, 3-1)
We have one team that can be potentially eliminated on Monday. Can the Pacers stay alive?
Stay safe, bubblers? Is that even a word? It is now.
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
TNLP on FaceBook.