Luka Dončić was never exactly a candidate for the All-Defensive teams, but his work on defense Thursday represented a low point for one of the best young players in the NBA, despite another brilliant game offensively.
The situation: a tie game with 10 seconds left between the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz. Klay Thompson had just tied the game with a 3-pointer with 27 seconds left and the ball was in Jordan Clarkson’s hands at the top of the arc.
Dončić was tasked with guarding Jazz forward John Collins. He stood between Collins and the ball and waited. And waited. And – well, let’s see what happened.
Dončić, focused for some reason on the already guarded Collin Sexton, let Collins pass him for the most open-jar-time dunk you’ll ever see.
To be fair, it wasn’t a textbook for the rest of the Mavericks defense either. Big man Dereck Lively II stood on the other side of the paint, but might have been able to stop Collins if he had helped earlier. At the very least, he might have caused Collins to have to make another pass. Naji Marshall also could have done a better job covering Marshall’s pass.
The basket is still on Dončić. Modern NBA defense is much, much more complicated than most fans realize, but the goal boils down to preventing a ballplayer from making the face Clarkson made when he saw Dončić wasn’t really following Collins.
There might have been some redemption for Dončić on the next play, when he got the ball to an open Grimes in the corner, but Marshall, a career .307 3-point shooter, missed the would-be game-winner.
Dončić took the blame for the defensive lapse talking to reporters after the game:
“I got it wrong. I thought I was going to hit and [Quentin] Grimes thought he was going to get hit… We got the bench wrong. That’s on me.”
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd also blamed miscommunication on the play:
“Communication. There was a break there. It happens and they took full advantage of it. We have to be better.”
It’s unfair to paint Dončić as the reason the Mavericks lost, though. He may have had a defensive slump, but he also had 37 points on 13-of-25 shooting with nine assists and seven rebounds. His career has been built on his offensive brilliance outweighing his lack of defense and it’s arguable that’s what happened Thursday.
And yet, that game also underscores what makes Dončić so frustrating. Collins didn’t score because he was faster than Dončić, or more experienced. He scored because Dončić lost track of his man with the game on the line and thought someone, Quentin Grimes, would save him despite being in an even worse position.
The loss drops the Mavericks to 5-7 on the season, which is not how you want to follow an NBA Finals berth.
