MINNEAPOLIS — When Luka Doncic sat down in the small postgame press conference room, he placed a trophy on the table in front of him, the smallest he had ever been in before the season ended. meeting room. The award, presented after he was voted MVP in the Western Conference Finals, begins with a gleaming gold podium supporting a silver orb. He admitted he wasn’t sure how to fit it into his trophy case.
“(It’s) going home,” Doncic said, his only certain destination at the moment. “I don’t know where I’m going yet.”
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Doncic’s glorious honors are too numerous to mention. He won Real Madrid’s EuroLeague 2018 trophy, but not Slovenia’s first EuroLeague 2017 victory. Aside from the post-match beers, what’s on his mind isn’t his new metal hunk, but his pursuit of a more golden hunk.
On Thursday, Doncic defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-103 in Game 5 to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time. Along with him came his new teammates, some of the best he’s ever had, and their superstar seemed destined to reach this stage.
Now he has done it.
Luka Doncic smiled during a press conference after the Mavericks won the Western Conference Finals. (Bruce Clarkhorn/USA Today)
It has been 13 years since the Dallas Mavericks reached the NBA Finals. Thirteen years have passed since they won their first championship in franchise history under Dirk Nowitzki. Toiled for thirteen years in Nowitzki’s twilight years and then learned how to trust Doncic when he arrived. This is Nowitzki’s franchise, always will be, but there’s no better successor. Not because the two legends are the same—or even close—but because they share one trait: a ruthless desire to win that inspired everyone around them. What Nowitzki left behind, Doncic inherited. Now, he’s back where Nowitzki once took them: into the Finals against the Boston Celtics, which begins on June 6.
Doncic didn’t watch the NBA Finals growing up. “It was 4 o’clock in the morning,” he said. “I can’t.” I was going to school the next day.
But from the opening minutes of Game 5, there was no doubt he scored his first goal. He scored 10 points in the first three minutes, 15 points in the first eight minutes, and 20 points by the end of this quarter, while the Timberwolves themselves only scored 19 points.
“I turned around and he shot from half court,” starting center Daniel Gafford said. “I’m like, ‘At this point, I don’t even need to set up a screen for you, bro.'”
Doncic has shown this type of game-winning performance many times before, most notably in Game 7 against the Phoenix Suns two seasons ago.
“It was very close this time,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “He immediately took the crowd out of the game and he let his teammates know it was time.”
Doncic scored 36 points on 14-of-22 shooting, and his partner Kyrie Irving also scored 36 points. Irving is the only player on the team who has ever made it to the Finals. Irving is the best player Doncic has ever played with, and he matched his shooting percentage in Thursday’s final win. He made sure Doncic’s roars and screams were tied to his own steely determination. With these two leading the team, in a game where both of them felt losing was not an option, the outcome was certain.
The teammates around them — teammates Doncic first met 12 months, 10 months, even three months ago — quickly earned Doncic’s full trust on the court.
When Doncic is unstoppable, his teammates keep his talents escalating. Putting him directly on the floor, Doncic overcame his lack of aerial athleticism to knock Gafford’s lofted pass into the rim. Double-teaming him, rookie Dereck Lively II catches the ball at the free throw line and passes it to an open teammate — usually P.J. Washington or Dereck Jones Jr. Derrick Jones Jr., the two defensive stalwarts quickly realized that hesitation was a mistake.
At times, Josh Green’s pass attempts are so bold you wonder if Doncic will manipulate him when they succeed. At other times, old friends like Maxi Kleber will remind us with a wealth of experience that Doncic is still a young man at only 25 years old, not even in his prime, despite watching his teammates follow Entering the peak with age. Even Jaden Hardy, the 21-year-old second-year guard resurrected in the past two weeks, walks around with a swagger that comes at least in part from Doncic.
Doncic is always at the helm of the team. His biography was earned on nights like this, and there’s no way to look at him and think about anything other than that he’s the best basketball player alive. Now, whether he and his teammates are enough to topple the Boston Celtics will be determined. This fight will be seven games, or six games, or however many games it takes.
“Our mission is not over yet,” Doncic said. “We need four more.”
Doncic’s trophy cabinet, where he’ll tuck his newfound trophies into any appropriate spot, could use a centerpiece. What Doncic wants to see at this position is the biggest trophy the sport has to offer. From the first moment he entered this league, he always wanted to be laden with laurels that he wanted to surpass.
Now his first chance begins.
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(Top photo of Luka Doncic and his father Sasa: David Berding/Getty Images)
