Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks are on the verge of getting swept by the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.
The Dallas Mavericks made all the headlines when they knocked out the Phoenix Suns in the 2nd round. The Suns had the best record in the NBA, and nobody expected Dallas to come out victorious against the Suns. The brilliance of Luka Doncic was once again vital for their success in the playoffs.
However, the Mavs have touched the surface against the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. The Warriors are on the verge of sweeping the Mavs, despite Luka playing well. This is only because the Warriors are a much better shooting team than the Suns, and they are exploiting the weakness of the Mavs, which is their interior defense.
After losing game 3 at home Luka and the Mavs players talked to the media regarding what went wrong for them in this series. Luka said, “The first three quarters, I played very bad. That’s on me. I’m still learning. I think after this season is done, whenever we are, I’m going to look back and learn a lot of things. This is my first conference finals in NBA. I’m 23, man. I’m still learning a lot.”
Luka further added, “It’s not over yet, but it’s not going to be easy. The Warriors are not going to give you anything easy. I think we’re going to learn a lot, and we’re still learning, but like we’ve got to come 100 percent every game.”
Even though the series is not over, the Mavs aren’t in a good place to make a comeback, because no team in the history of the NBA has made a comeback from being 0-3 down.
“We weren’t attacking the paint that much” – Luka Doncic discusses the Mavs’ gameplan against the Warriors
The Dallas Mavericks absolutely destroyed the Phoenix Suns with their three-point shooting during the last round. However, that hasn’t worked well for them in this series. Maxi Kleber, Reggie Bullock, and DFS haven’t been able to make open shots, and it has cost them quite a lot.
Talking about what went wrong for the Mavs, Luka Doncic said, “I think we relied too much on the three. We weren’t attacking the paint that much. But we got to attack the paint more like they did. They attacked the paint a lot. They have two of the best shooters in the world, and they still attack the paint.”
Jason Kidd clears out the air after losing a big game 3 against the Warriors
With Dallas Mavericks almost certain to get knocked out by the Mavs, Jason Kidd cleared out the air for his team. Even though they are in a tough situation, they are going to keep believing in themselves and see where they go from here.
Jason Kidd said, “Yeah, it’s just one game. We’ll get ready for Game 4, and that’s all we can focus on. I think I said this in the last series. This is just the beginning of this journey.”
Apart from Luka, two other Mavs players have also stepped up against the Warriors. Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie have played well, but the Mavs are still not able to take down the Warriors.
Talking about facing the Warrior and having difficulty beating them, Dinwiddie said, “Yeah, I mean, they’ve won championships. They’ve played at a high level for a long time. They’re known to do that, to your point. We didn’t necessarily respond. That’s why you had the swing in momentum.”
The Golden State Warriors have continued to hurt the Mavs in the third quarter of every game. The Warriors are known for playing their best after coming out from halftime. As a result, they are able to change the momentum of the game towards them and finish their job in the clutch.
Jalen Brunson is well aware of it and he said, “We’ve just got to pick it up the third quarter, fix our rebounding. When things get tough, you’ve got to stick together. That’s something that we’ve been able to do all year, so we’ve just got to stick together.”
The Mavs need to tighten up things on their defensive end if they want to take this series further, or else the Warriors will eventually sweep them and progress to the NBA Finals.
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