Doncic, Luka (1999- )

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      Luka Doncic Has 60 Points, 21 Rebounds and 10 Assists

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      The Mavericks rallied to beat the Knicks in overtime as Doncic rewrote the N.B.A. record books with a 60-point triple-double.No player since the 1960s had tallied 50 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists in an N.B.A. game. On Tuesday night, Luka Doncic reached that total and kept right on going to 60 points.Doncic’s 60-21-10 line in the Mavericks’ 126-121 overtime victory against the Knicks in Dallas was the first in N.B.A. history. The other highest point totals with 20 rebounds and 10 assists all came more than 50 years ago: Wilt Chamberlain’s 53-32-14 in 1968, Elgin Baylor’s 52-25-10 in 1961 and Chamberlain’s 51-29-11 in 1963.In the 21st century, only DeMarcus Cousins (44-23-10) in 2018 and Nikola Jokic (40-27-10) this month had as many as 40 points along with 20 rebounds and 10 assists.Cut the rebound requirement to 10 from 20 and Doncic’s game is still tied for the highest scoring ever, alongside James Harden’s 60-10-11 game in 2018.Doncic shot 21-for-31 on Tuesday night. It was the first 60-point game in Mavericks history, surpassing a 53-point game by Dirk Nowitzki in 2004. Basketball Reference gave the performance a “game score” of 56.3, the best in the league since Harden’s game and the fifth best of the 3-point era.Many of Doncic’s buckets came in classic Luka style: The 6-foot-7 player repeatedly handled the ball near the 3-point arc, then drove in for a layup or an assist. His teammates made 23 baskets in total, and Doncic assisted on 10 of them.The Knicks led the game by 9 points with 42 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, but Doncic helped lead a Mavericks comeback that forced overtime. With one second to go and the Mavericks trailing by 2, he intentionally missed a free throw, got the rebound after several players from both teams touched the ball and made the shot as time expired.“It was just kind of lucky,” Doncic said of the game-tying shot. “I’m tired as hell. I need a recovery beer.”Doncic scored 27 of his points off pick-and-roll plays. “I love the pick-and-roll,” he said. “I think everybody knows that. So just keep rolling the pick-and-roll.”Three of the four 50-20-10 games in N.B.A. history went to overtime, but Doncic did not benefit enormously from the extra time: He played a total of 47 minutes, less than Chamberlain and Baylor did in their games.It was the first 60-point game of the N.B.A. season, surpassing Joel Embiid’s 59 for the Philadelphia 76ers in November. Doncic exceeded his previous career high, 50, which he had set Friday against the Houston Rockets. His 21 rebounds were also a career high.The Mavericks, who lost in the conference finals to the Golden State Warriors last season, have won four in a row and climbed to sixth place in the West.At 23 and in just his fifth N.B.A. season, Doncic figures to improve. Partway through the season, his field-goal percentage is over .500 for the first time in his career, despite his shooting more than ever before, and his 33.6-point average is also a career high.But it will be tough to conjure a performance that would top Tuesday night’s. More

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      NBA Christmas Day Games 2022: What to Know

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      The N.B.A. brings out its stars on Christmas. This year, there will be some new rivalries, too.The N.B.A. showcases its stars on Christmas Day, and this year there will be some big names to watch, like LeBron James, Jayson Tatum and Joel Embiid.There will also be a new face in the mix (Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant is playing on the holiday for the first time) and a familiar one missing (Golden State’s Stephen Curry is out injured).In each of the five games, there is something to look forward to, from young players trying to make their mark to older foes avenging playoff losses.Here’s what you need to know.All times are Eastern, and all games will air on ABC and ESPN. The statistics were current entering Friday night’s games.Philadelphia 76ers at Knicks, noonJames Harden missed several games for the Sixers with an injury, but he’s back and helping them stack up wins.Matt Slocum/Associated PressAfter rocky starts, these teams are finally clicking. The Knicks surged up the Eastern Conference standings on the strength of a recent winning streak, while Philadelphia was compiling a streak of its own.They met on Nov. 4, with the Knicks winning, but Philadelphia didn’t have its two best players: center Joel Embiid and guard James Harden. That makes Sunday’s game the teams’ first true matchup. The Knicks have played on Christmas more often than any other team, but this is the first time they will have Jalen Brunson, their big free-agent signing of the off-season.Brunson, a guard who spent his first four seasons in Dallas, leads the Knicks in assists and is the team’s second-best scorer, behind forward Julius Randle. For the first quarter of the season, the Knicks struggled to string together wins. But then December hit, and they found their stride.That’s when fortunes improved for the Sixers, too. Harden had missed more than a dozen games with a foot injury but returned this month to produce several impressive games with double-digit assist totals. The Knicks will, of course, have to watch out for Embiid as well. Last month, in a game against the Utah Jazz, he had this wild stat line: 59 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists and 7 blocks.Los Angeles Lakers at Dallas Mavericks, 2:30 p.m.Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic is in his fifth N.B.A. season but has already been named to the All-Star team three times.Emil Lippe/Associated PressFans can seemingly always count on seeing the Lakers on Christmas — this is the 24th year in a row — but nothing else about the team has been that consistent.Even as LeBron James, who will turn 38 on Friday, continues to defy reason with his youthful play, minor injuries keep tugging him to the bench. Then there’s the major injury to center Anthony Davis, who is out indefinitely with a sore right foot. Other ailments have rippled through the roster, and the Lakers’ sub-.500 record reflects that. But it also reflects an aging team that got off to a terrible start (0-5) and hasn’t settled into a high-performing rhythm since then.All of that is to say: The Lakers have been a little bit all over the place.Dallas has been, too. Luka Doncic is playing and scoring more than last season, but the Mavericks are losing to bad teams right after beating good ones. The Lakers could fall into either category on Sunday. At the very least, it should be a fun game, with Doncic and James battling to see who can put on the best show. They are both capable of making even the earliest risers hold off on a midday nap.Milwaukee Bucks at Boston Celtics, 5 p.m.Jayson Tatum led the Celtics to the N.B.A. finals last season and has followed that up with high-scoring play this season.David Butler II/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBoston’s Jayson Tatum has responded to his disappointing appearance in the N.B.A. finals last season in the best way: by playing better than ever before. He’s leading the league in minutes per game (37.2), and he’s putting them to good use, averaging a career-best 30.6 points per game by making about half of his shots.The Celtics will face a Bucks team with a not-so-shabby star of its own in Giannis Antetokounmpo. Last season ended in playoff disappointment for him, too, with Milwaukee falling to Boston in seven games in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Sunday will be his first chance for a little revenge.The Bucks and the Celtics are jockeying for first place in the East, though they are fighting with different strengths. Boston has the league’s second-best offense, while Milwaukee has the third-best defense. The postseason is still a ways off, but it would be a surprise not to see one of these teams in the N.B.A. finals. Their Christmas matchup should help each team see what it needs to work on to make sure it’s the one playing for a title.Memphis Grizzlies at Golden State, 8 p.m.Ja Morant has made the Grizzlies one of the most exciting teams to watch in recent years. Brandon Dill/Associated PressNo one can argue that the Grizzlies haven’t earned this, their Christmas debut.Point guard Ja Morant is the speedy, soaring, confident heart of the team, but Memphis is more than its brightest star — and Morant would be the first to say so. He’s averaging a career-best 7.8 assists per game as he and his teammates keep the Grizzlies near the top of a tightly contested Western Conference.They finished last season as the No. 2 seed in the West and could have made a run to the conference finals if Golden State (and injuries) hadn’t gotten in their way in the second round. Sunday will be the teams’ first meeting since then.Both teams have dealt with their share of injuries this season, but Golden State has an especially big one: Stephen Curry has been out since he hurt his shoulder against Indiana on Dec. 14, and it’s not clear when he will return.Golden State is currently ranked in the bottom half of the West, but the intensity of last season’s playoff series with Memphis should carry over and make Sunday’s game a good contest nonetheless.Phoenix Suns at Denver Nuggets, 10:30 p.m.Denver’s Nikola Jokic won the Most Valuable Player Award the past two seasons.Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesThe last game on a long day of basketball is easy to overlook. But Denver’s Nikola Jokic is sure to make at least one pass that will make staying up late worth it. That’s kind of his thing: One minute he has the ball, and then the next his teammate on the other side of the court does, and no one is quite sure how it happened. The Suns are a top-10 defensive team, but some things just can’t be stopped.Phoenix is also the league’s best on offense, which could be a challenge for the Nuggets, who are among the N.B.A.’s worst on defense. Suns guard Chris Paul is one of the best ever at getting the ball to his teammates. Paul led the league in assists last season, his fifth time doing so, and is averaging about nine per game this season.If this game’s late start isn’t a deal-breaker, it should be a nice chance to see some excellent passing and skilled shooters making good on the assist. More

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      The Celtics Have Found a New Way to Be Better Than Everyone Else

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      Boston was the best defensive team last season en route to the N.B.A. finals. Not so much this year. A scorching offense has helped them to the best record this year.BOSTON — The Celtics have been many things this season.Explosive from the 3-point line. Unguardable in transition. A nightmare for defenders, who have witnessed another leap in the twin-pronged development of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, two young players who, around this time last year, were coping with criticism about whether they could coexist. Now, they have the Celtics positioned as a presumptive favorite to return to the N.B.A. finals — and perhaps win it all.Yet for all their pyrotechnics on offense, the Celtics have had their issues on defense. Through the early weeks of the season, Boston has been more pasta strainer than steel curtain when it comes to thwarting open looks. Considering everything else that the team can do — namely, score oodles of points — the Celtics have offered up some decidedly mediocre defense.But that may be changing, which is awful news for the rest of the league.Facing the Celtics last week, the Dallas Mavericks were trying to sustain a late-game surge when their All-Star guard, Luka Doncic, found a seam to the basket — only to have his finger roll rejected at the rim by Tatum. The Celtics came away with the ball and pushed it ahead to Brown, who sank a 3-pointer to seal the Boston win.As that sequence was playing out, Tatum and Doncic were left in quiet conversation at the other end.“I told him that I didn’t want him to dunk on me,” Tatum said later. “He looked at me and was like, ‘You thought I was going to dunk it?’ I was like: ‘You never know.’”The Celtics, who have won 13 of their last 14 games to improve their record to a league-best 17-4, still have a middle-of-the-pack, bend-but-don’t-break defense under Joe Mazzulla, their interim coach. Their defensive rating, which is a measure of points allowed per possession, ranked 14th in the league entering Tuesday. But over their past eight games, the Celtics have produced a top-10 defense — a sign of growth as they lean into Mazzulla’s up-tempo style while compensating for the injury absence of Robert Williams III, their starting center.Celtics guard Marcus Smart, right, who won the Defensive Player of the Year Award last season, is defending centers more often this year with center Robert Williams III out injured.Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press“Our offense is so good that it hides some of our defensive flaws,” Marcus Smart, the team’s starting point guard, said in an interview. “But we’re continuously out here working, and it’s only going to get better with time.”And it will presumably improve even more later this season. After Williams underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in late September, the team said he would resume “basketball activities” in eight to 12 weeks. There are no certainties about his health, of course, but even if Williams were to return at less than full strength, his mere presence around the rim would help. Last season, he was named to the N.B.A.’s all-defensive second team.In his absence, Smart, who is 6 foot 3, has spent more time guarding opposing centers than he would prefer. After he averaged 1.7 steals a game last season, when he won the N.B.A.’s Defensive Player of the Year Award, Smart is averaging just 1.1 steals this season, a dip that can be attributed to his playing out of position.“Because I’m guarding the post so much, you don’t want to gamble too much,” Smart said. “It’ll be different when Rob is out there and I can gamble. But without him, I have to be solid for my team and control that back line.”The Celtics were all about grinding opponents to smithereens last season, when they led the league in defensive rating. Ime Udoka, who was in his first season as the team’s coach, made defense his priority, and it was a winning strategy. In the playoffs, Boston advanced to the N.B.A. finals before falling to Golden State in six games.Mazzulla, though, was made interim coach on the eve of training camp after the Celtics suspended Udoka for the season for unspecified “violations of team policies.” (According to two people with knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to discuss it, Udoka had a relationship with a female subordinate.)But while Mazzulla was an assistant under Udoka last season, he has not tried to replicate Udoka’s approach. Instead, Mazzulla has done things his own way — by recognizing the team’s unique offensive abilities. Entering Tuesday, the Celtics were leading the league in scoring, 3-pointers, 3-point percentage and offensive rating.It is also worth noting that, as a part of Boston’s off-season trade for Malcolm Brogdon, the Celtics gave up Daniel Theis, a defense-minded center. The trade, of course, was worth it: Brogdon, a point guard, has been terrific coming off the bench, and Theis has yet to play for the Indiana Pacers this season because of an injured knee.In any case, the Celtics have essentially been daring opponents to keep up with them. Sometimes, Smart said, that may mean that the Celtics give up an extra offensive rebound or two as they look to break out and run.“When you’re not really boxing out as much and having as many guys stay back, your defense is going to take a hit,” Smart said. “But we’re going to get it together.”For his part, Tatum has clearly taken another step as a defender by averaging a career-best 1.2 blocks a game. He recently described himself and Brown as “two of the best two-way players in the league.”Tatum left his imprint on the Mavericks last week. Late in the second quarter, Tatum raced in as a weakside defender to swat a layup by the Mavericks’ Dorian Finney-Smith. Tatum corralled the rebound, brought the ball upcourt himself and got fouled attempting a 3-pointer. He made all three free throws.“That’s what’s going to make him an even greater player — being able to do it on both ends,” Smart said. “We know what he can do on the offensive end. Everybody knows. But it’s even more detrimental to a team when you’re locking them up.”There are times, though, when it may not even matter.On Monday, the Celtics hosted the Charlotte Hornets, an injury-marred team that has taken up residence in the Eastern Conference basement. With Brown and Al Horford sitting out the second game of a back-to-back, Mazzulla went with a deeper rotation. Blake Griffin, who had been collecting dust bunnies on the bench for nearly two weeks, made his third start of the season and scored on the team’s opening possession. The Celtics sank 10 3-pointers in the first quarter and led by as many as 30 points before halftime.They were well on their way to another rout in a season full of them. More

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      NBA Season Preview: The Nets and the Lakers Are the Wild Cards

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      Even for a league used to drama and headlines, the N.B.A. had a dizzying off-season.There were trade requests (Kevin Durant) and trade rumors (Russell Westbrook); injuries (Chet Holmgren) and returns (Zion Williamson). The power structure of the Western Conference could be upended by the return of Kawhi Leonard with the Clippers; the power structure of the East is again unclear.And a series of scandals at Boston, Phoenix and Golden State could have lasting implications for the league.In short: A lot is going on.Headline More

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      Here’s What to Know About EuroBasket

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      The championship of Europe for men’s national basketball teams is being played for the first time since 2017. It is down to the last four teams.We answer your questions about the EuroBasket tournament, which concludes this weekend in Berlin.Wait, have Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic actually been playing competitive basketball the past two weeks?Yes, and other big names like Luka Doncic and Rudy Gobert have also been involved in EuroBasket.What exactly is EuroBasket?The championship of Europe for men’s national teams, normally held every two years, although this year’s is the first since 2017 because of the pandemic. This year’s games have been played in the Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany and Italy.Is it a big deal?Some American fans don’t know much about it, but in European basketball circles, it is a big deal. It is considered one of the three most important international tournaments, along with the Olympics and the World Cup, and regularly attracts most of Europe’s best players.EuroBasket is a big enough deal that Jokic, the reigning winner of the N.B.A.’s Most Valuable Player Award, who might have been excused for skipping an off-season tournament, played for his native Serbia. It is a big enough deal that Antetokounmpo of Greece also played — and took it seriously enough that he was ejected from his quarterfinal after committing two unsportsmanlike conduct fouls.Where does the competition stand?Germany, Spain, France and Poland have advanced to the final four in Berlin this weekend. ESPN+ is streaming the games in the U.S.; the semifinals are at 1:05 and 4:20 p.m. Eastern on Friday and the final at 4:20 p.m. on Sunday.Is there a women’s EuroBasket?Yes. The next one is in 2023 in Slovenia and Israel; Serbia is the defending champion. Because it is played in June, it does not generally attract W.N.B.A. players, although top European-based players and some American collegians compete.How have the big names been doing in the men’s event?Gobert had 19 points and 13 rebounds in France’s overtime victory over Italy in the quarterfinals and is averaging 14.7 points, just behind the 15.0 from his teammate Evan Fournier of the Knicks.But while Gobert and France play on, three of the biggest names have been eliminated in what has been an unpredictable event so far.Doncic was huge for Slovenia. In a game against France he scored 47 on 15 of 23 shooting and also had 36- and 35-point games, for three of the top five scoring performances in the tournament. But he was just 5 of 15 as Slovenia was shocked by Poland in the quarterfinals despite rallying from a 23-point deficit.“We didn’t go into the game like we wanted to,” Doncic told reporters. “The energy wasn’t there, but then we came back. But Poland was still fighting, so congrats to Poland.” France will meet Poland in a semifinal.Antetokounmpo averaged a tournament-high 29.3 points per game before Greece was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Germany after his ejection. Jokic, whose Serbian team was eliminated in the round of 16 by Italy, is the fifth leading scorer at 21.7 points a game.Rudy Gobert had 19 points and 13 rebounds in France’s overtime victory over Italy.Filip Singer/EPA, via ShutterstockAny less familiar names?Center Willy Hernangómez, of the New Orleans Pelicans, who has never averaged 10 points a game with three N.B.A. teams, is playing like a dominant big man in this competition, averaging 17.9 points a game for Spain. He was 10-13 from the floor in a quarterfinal win over Finland, which put Spain in an 11th straight Eurobasket semifinal, dating to 1999.In the semifinals, Spain will face host Germany, which has advanced without really having a marquee player. Dennis Schröder, the point guard who is a free agent after most recently playing with the Rockets, has impressed, ranking seventh in points per game and sixth in assists per game.Poland has made it to the semis without a current N.B.A. player on its roster or a leading scorer in the tournament. Forward Mateusz Ponitka, the captain, who plays for Reggio Emilia in Italy, had 26 points as part of a triple-double in the quarterfinal win. “Here we are: We are Cinderella right now,” the 28-year-old Ponitka told reporters, saying it was the first triple-double of his career.The power forward Lauri Markkanen of Finland, which punched above its weight to make the quarterfinals, also opened eyes. He had 43 points in an upset of Croatia, a team with Dario Saric and Bojan Bogdanovic, in the round of 16. That could be good news for the Utah Jazz, who acquired Markkanen from the Cavaliers two weeks ago.Who’s going to win?It’s a tough call among three of the remaining four teams, with Poland the only real long shot. France is an 8½-point favorite to end Poland’s run in the first semi, while Germany is a 3½-point favorite over world champion Spain, mostly because of the home court advantage. More

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      Dallas Mavericks Save Season With Win Over Golden State

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      Dallas staved off elimination by Golden State behind Luka Doncic’s near triple-double. But the mass shooting in Uvalde loomed over the game.DALLAS — After a second-quarter stoppage in play, Luka Doncic of the Mavericks rose from one leg and tossed up a meaningless shot from beyond the 3-point line whose sole purpose seemed to be to entertain Doncic himself. It was a skyscraper, the ball hurtling toward the rafters before plummeting to Earth. It took one hard bounce off the court and then rattled through the hoop.As they waded into Tuesday’s playoff game against the Golden State Warriors, the Mavericks had to be wondering whether they could make shots with any consistency. Their season depended on it.While Doncic’s circus shot didn’t count, the degree of difficulty was outrageous. (Welcome to Luka’s World.) The crowd roared. And for a team on the ropes, it was a sign of good things to come.A major comeback can only begin with a modest first step, and Dallas is banking on the hope — however remote — that its 119-109 win over Golden State on Tuesday night in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals is a building block for a miracle.“We’re going to believe until the end,” said Doncic, who made several more conventional shots as the game moved along, finishing with 30 points, 14 rebounds and 9 assists. “We got more to do, you know. This is nothing.”You may have heard this before, but no team has overcome a three-games-to-none deficit in N.B.A. history. After avoiding elimination, Dallas, which now trails in the series, 3-1, wants to become the first. Game 5 is on Thursday in San Francisco.Stephen Curry led Golden State with 20 points but sat for most of the fourth quarter, with the game seemingly out of reach.Jerome Miron/USA Today Sports, via Reuters“We want to do something special,” the Mavericks’ Dorian Finney-Smith said. “It’s going to be very hard, but we can do it. We just got to stick together.”If nothing else, Tuesday’s win was a credit to the Mavericks and their resilient young core. They could have folded up for the season after polluting Game 3 with a buffet of ugly jump shots. In the loss, they went 13 of 45 from 3-point range. Reggie Bullock missed all 10 of his field-goal attempts.On Tuesday, the Mavericks shot 20 of 43 from 3-point range, assisted on 30 of their 41 field goals and unboxed a new-and-improved version of Bullock, who made 6 of his 10 3-point attempts.“It was almost like an ego win,” Golden State’s Stephen Curry said, referring to the Mavericks. “You come out and you really have nothing to lose, so that confidence started early. We didn’t really do nothing to slow it down, and that’s when the avalanche starts. So it’s a good lesson learned. You tip your hat to them because they made a lot of shots.”After scuffling through a couple of injury-marred, playoff-free seasons, Golden State remains one win from its first conference championship since 2019. But throughout the postseason, the team has faltered — at least momentarily — when it has come to eliminating its opponents.In the first round, the Denver Nuggets avoided a sweep by defeating Golden State in Game 4. In the conference semifinals, the Memphis Grizzlies prolonged their series with a 39-point win. For both the Nuggets and the Grizzlies, the reprieve was temporary: Golden State closed out each series in the subsequent game.The Mavericks present a different type of challenge. For long stretches of Tuesday’s game, Golden State went to a zone defense, which Dallas Coach Jason Kidd took as a compliment.“Because they can’t play us one-on-one,” he said.It was an odd game, both somber and then celebratory in its own muted way. It was played hours after at least 19 children and two adults were killed by a gunman at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, about 350 miles southwest of Dallas. At his pregame news conference, Golden State Coach Steve Kerr made an emotional plea for gun control legislation, while Kidd declined to answer questions about basketball.“We’re going to try to play the game,” Kidd said. “We have no choice.”Afterward, Kerr struggled to put the night into any sort of palatable context.“It’s too much to fathom, too much to comprehend,” he said. “We move on and we hope that someone actually decides to value our citizens’ lives more than they value money and power.”On a rainy evening, the start of the second half was delayed by leaks in the roof. By then, the Mavericks had a 15-point lead and were looking to build their momentum.It was not going to be easy: Golden State has a well-deserved reputation for pulverizing teams coming out of halftime. In fact, through the first three games of the series, the Warriors had outscored the Mavericks by a total of 31 points in the third quarter. Kidd was not overly concerned.“This group doesn’t let anything faze them,” he said.Sure enough, Dallas shot 8 of 13 from 3-point range in the third quarter to extend its lead to 29. Golden State made a late run with its reserves, but fell short.It is an obvious observation, but Doncic cannot do it alone — not against Golden State. He certainly tried to do his part in Game 2, when he scored 42, and in Game 3, when he scored 40. The Mavericks lost both.On Tuesday, he got help from lesser lights like Bullock and Finney-Smith, and even from Maxi Kleber, who came off the bench to snap his series-long nightmare by shooting 5 of 6 from the field.“If they make shots,” Doncic said, “I think it’s tough to beat us.”The Mavericks just need to do more of the same three more times. No circus shots required. More

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      The Dallas Mavericks Just May Not Be Good Enough Yet

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      With Golden State one win from the N.B.A. finals, Dallas is already talking about the off-season. Luka Doncic said he was “still learning.”DALLAS — Jason Kidd, the coach of the Mavericks, had a concise message for his players before Game 3 of the N.B.A.’s Western Conference finals on Sunday night.Open shots, he reminded them in the locker room, are easier to make than contested shots, so get into the paint and draw Golden State defenders. Do that, and space will open up on the perimeter.“Attack, attack, attack,” said Kidd, his voice betraying no small amount of urgency. “Make them work.”It was a smart strategy, and sure enough, it worked. The Mavericks generated a respectable number of clean looks at 3-pointers. The problem? They couldn’t make many of them. Luka Doncic, the team’s star point guard, offered a synopsis.“Sometimes you feel like you’re open and everybody knows you can make a shot, and then just miss,” he said. “It gets you quite a little bit down.”It was the latest installment of a series-long nightmare for the Mavericks, whose 109-100 loss put them on the brink of elimination. Golden State can complete a four-game sweep on Tuesday, and if that isn’t dire enough for Dallas, there is also this heavily recited piece of trivia: No team in league history has come back from the three-games-to-none series deficit the Mavericks are facing.“It’s not over yet,” Doncic said, “but it’s not going to be easy.”Not against an opponent that Kidd described as a “dynasty.” Not against the likes of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, together again after wading through two injury-ravaged seasons to lead the Warriors to the cusp of their first N.B.A. finals appearance since 2019.But Golden State is also a potent blend of new and old. For a stretch of the third quarter, the Warriors went with a box-and-1 defense as Moses Moody, the first-year guard, defended Doncic after receiving guidance from Green. In the fourth quarter, Andrew Wiggins, who has been playing his finest basketball since joining the team in 2020, nearly dunked Doncic into oblivion.“That was impressive,” Doncic said, “I’m not going to lie.”And Jordan Poole, the third-year guard who took advantage of the team’s lean seasons to develop into an explosive playmaker, sealed the win with a late-game 3-pointer.“They just stay connected throughout the entire game, whether they’re down 20 or up 20,” the Mavericks’ Jalen Brunson said. “You can see that. It’s just very evident.”Jalen Brunson, center, has been one of Dallas’s best performers in the playoffs. He had 20 points on 7 of 12 shooting on Sunday.Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesIt must be small consolation for them right now, but the Mavericks are learning some valuable lessons — many of the same lessons that the Memphis Grizzlies learned in the last round when they succumbed to Golden State’s experience and wisdom and all-around cohesive play. While Kidd stopped short of conceding the series, he acknowledged as much.“As we reflect this summer, whenever that starts, we’ll understand what we did and how we can get better,” he said. “We’re going to keep fighting, but we’re also going to get better from this experience.”Give the Mavericks credit for trying to adjust their approach after blowing a 19-point lead in Game 2.That adjustment was on display early in the second quarter of Game 3, as the Mavericks — once, twice, three times — penetrated into the paint, continually sending passes to the perimeter in search of a quality shot. It was only when they dribbled into the teeth of the defense for a fourth time that Dorian Finney-Smith spotted Brunson behind the 3-point line. He drained the shot.Later in the quarter, Brunson repaid the favor when he picked up his dribble near the left elbow. As a slew of Golden State defenders converged on him, Brunson whipped the ball to Finney-Smith for another 3-pointer, which pushed Dallas’s lead to 6.But that was as good as it got for the Mavericks, who were otherwise woeful from the 3-point line, shooting 13 of 45. Reggie Bullock missed all seven of his 3-point attempts. Maxi Kleber was 0 for 5.“We just didn’t shoot the ball well,” Kidd said. “We’re getting good looks, and they’re just not dropping.”There were other problems. One of them was named Stephen Curry, who collected 31 points and 11 assists while shooting 5 of 10 from 3-point range. The Mavericks also gave up too many offensive rebounds, and they wasted another valiant effort from Doncic. After scoring 42 points on Friday, he went for 40 on Sunday. The Mavericks lost both games.“I’m still learning,” he said.Stephen Curry had 31 points — including five 3-pointers — in Golden State’s win.Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesIf nothing else, the Mavericks are going to win or lose by being themselves — and unapologetically so. There is no greater illustration of this phenomenon than the behavior of their players on the bench, who have been treading a fine line between enthusiastic and obnoxious. They cheer. They dance. But they also stand precariously close to the court, which has caused issues.On Friday, for example, Curry threw a pass to an open player who was calling for the ball. The problem was that the open player was Theo Pinson, an inactive player for the Mavericks. Curry had mistaken Pinson’s white shirt for a Golden State jersey.“It was a good pass,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said, deadpan. “He was open.”The league subsequently fined the Mavericks $100,000 for continuing to violate league rules regarding “team bench decorum.” On multiple occasions, the league said in a statement, players and at least one member of the coaching staff had encroached on the playing surface. It was the third time the league had fined the Mavericks in the postseason for the extracurriculars of their bench.“We’re not going to sit,” Kidd said before Game 3. “We’re going to cheer.”By the end of night, Golden State had rendered them silent. More

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      Golden State’s Andrew Wiggins Isn’t the Bust You Thought He Was

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      Wiggins, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2014, had developed a reputation as a bust. Coming to Golden State has helped him finally tap his potential.SAN FRANCISCO — Reputations tend to stick if they ring true and, for a while, Andrew Wiggins’s reputation in the N.B.A. was that he was a bust.For years, the word on Wiggins, a former No. 1 pick, was that he was inconsistent. That he was bad at defense. That he didn’t care.The Cleveland Cavaliers had drafted him first overall in 2014 but traded him to the Minnesota Timberwolves less than two months later. More than five seasons in Minnesota bore little fruit, and after the Timberwolves went to the playoffs only once during that period they sent Wiggins to Golden State.His latest stop, though, has changed things for Wiggins. Wednesday night offered one more example of his progression.Golden State made a statement in the opening game of the Western Conference finals, leading the Dallas Mavericks by 30 points in the fourth quarter and winning, 112-87. Golden State’s point total wasn’t exceptionally high, but its defense propelled its victory.Wiggins was a big part of that. The Warriors asked Wiggins to be their primary defender on the All-Star guard Luka Doncic, and Wiggins made sure Doncic didn’t hurt Golden State in the way he had hurt the Mavericks’ previous playoff opponents.“That’s why he was the No. 1 pick,” Golden State’s Klay Thompson said of Wiggins. “You can’t teach that athleticism. You can’t teach that length. You can’t teach his timing. I’m just happy the world is getting to see who he really is.”Wiggins 8 of 17 from the field on Wednesday, including three 3-pointers.Thearon W. Henderson/Getty ImagesDoncic finished the game with 20 points, only one more than Wiggins and only 2 of them after the first half. He also committed seven turnovers and had only four assists. Doncic suggested after the game that an achy shoulder had played a role in his performance, saying it was causing him pain when he shot the ball, but added that he would be fine with some treatment.But part of Golden State’s plan was to wear him out, and it was Wiggins’s job to do it.“He took the challenge, and Luka’s tough,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. “He still finds a way to control possessions. You’ve got to assume he’ll shoot a little bit better, but Wiggs was relentless. Every possession, he was out there on him. That’s all we really want. Even if Luka has his numbers, you just want to, at the end of the day, feel like he had to work for everything he got.”On Most possessions, Wiggins would start guarding Doncic in the backcourt, not allowing him to easily bring the ball up the court. Asked after the game if that all-court effort had tired him out, Wiggins shrugged and offered a half smile.“I feel like I’m still young,” said Wiggins, who is 27. “I don’t really get too tired. I’m locked in. I’m motivated. And when you see it work or I feel like it’s helping us play better, it just motivates me to do it more.”Said Thompson: “He just doesn’t seem to get tired.”Thompson appreciated the effort more than most: the way Wiggins has been playing, he said, took some pressure off him.“I don’t have to check the best player every night again,” said Thompson, who was known for his defense before missing the past two seasons with leg injuries. “Especially after what I’ve been through, it’s a nice change of pace.”The 87 points the Mavericks scored were the lowest opponent total against Golden State this postseason. The Warriors have held opponents below 100 points three other times during the playoffs this year; each time, they have won.The Mavericks had great success from 3-point range in earlier rounds, but made only 3 of 19 3-pointers in the first quarter Wednesday, and finished the game 11 for 48 from behind the arc. Those misses came from throughout their roster — it wasn’t only Doncic who struggled offensively. But Doncic is the player who drives the Mavericks, so his struggles loom larger.After the final buzzer, Doncic let out a long exhale as he walked through the tunnel toward the visiting locker room at Chase Center. He wore a T-shirt over his uniform because he hadn’t played the final five minutes; by then, the game was too far out of hand for playing him to be worth the risk. His face was marked by an inadvertent red scratch from Wiggins, several inches long, from the right side of his nose down his cheek.The Mavericks have a habit of losing big and recovering. They lost to the Phoenix Suns by 30 points in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals before beating them by 27 in Game 6 and by 33 in Game 7. Several Mavericks players on Wednesday spoke after the game about expecting a much better performance from Doncic during Game 2 on Friday.“We’re under no illusion we’ve figured anything out,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said.What they have figured out, and are glad others are seeing now, is that Wiggins has tapped into a part of his potential that might have been dormant, or at least less obvious in previous seasons.Thompson said being with Golden State has allowed Wiggins to be himself. Curry said he’s learning how to win.Wiggins said the winning culture of Golden State cultivated by players like Stephen Curry, center, has helped him “see a different side of the game.”Harry How/Getty Images“Wiggs is understanding the nuances of what winning basketball is and just how to key in on the little things in terms of consistent effort from the defense, taking those one-on-one challenges, being aggressive on the offensive end, using his athletic ability to get to the rim if he needs to, confidence shooting the 3; being comfortable in our offense,” Curry said. “So there’s a lot of different things that he’s understanding that this time, in terms of a playoff run, requires to win games and the joy that comes with it.”Wiggins passed the credit for that right back to Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green, who all won three championships and went to five straight N.B.A. finals together.“It helps me see a different side of the game,” Wiggins said. “Being here, the culture, the people, organization, most importantly, just being around winners.”A winner was not a label attached to Wiggins much at the start of his career, but during these playoffs he has showed more and more that it fits. 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