Luka Doncic feels 'happiness' after advancing for first time as Dallas Mavericks as Dallas Mavericks out of Utah Jazz
Published: April 28, 2022 US time
Publisher: ESPN
Article by Tim McMahon
Article translated by de Gaulle
In Luka Doncic's view, the three-point whistle thrown by Jazz forward Bogdanovic in the final moments of the game seemed to have flown in the air for 15 seconds. It was also during this incomparably "long" time that the young Doncic felt tormented.
Originally, when the 6th game of the Jazz Series was played to 4.3 seconds, the Lone Ranger was still 2 points ahead of the opponent. Plus the Dallas man also led 3-2, so as long as this result is maintained until the end, the Lone Ranger can win this game and the entire series. The Jazz, who are standing on the other side of the field, naturally will not give up easily, and head coach Snyder shouted a timeout and laid out the tactics of the final attack, and the core figure around is the best shooter in the team - Bogdanovic.
The pause ends and the game restarts. Relying on the excellent cover of his teammates, Bogdanovic ran out of the left 45-degree three-point line, and the ball from the sideline went around the heads of most of the players on the field and flew into Bogdanovic's hands. Lone Ranger's Dinwiddie rushed over from the flank to make up for the defense, and was also directly shaken by Bogdanovic with a shooting fake. At this point, in front of Bogdanovic's eyes, only the basket remains.
"Oh my God, my first thought was, 'He's not going to miss a shooting opportunity like this.'" Doncic said after the game, "My heart stopped moving at that time. ”
But it was such an empty three-pointer with little difficulty that became the last shot of the season for Bogdanovic and the Jazz. The ball he threw smashed into the basket, and the time of the game was completely finished with this shot, and a sigh of regret resounded throughout the stadium, and two numbers were fixed on the scoreboard: 98 to 96. The one with the higher scores is the Lone Ranger, and Doncic can celebrate his first playoff series victory in his fourth year in the league.
"It's just happy," Doncic said with a smile as he talked about how he felt about winning the series, "I think our whole team really worked really hard to get to this point." So I think crossing the first round is the performance we deserve to play. Although we didn't do well enough in today's game, each of us remained united. This unity is the key to winning this game. ”
As Doncic said, the Lone Ranger was still 12 points behind the Jazz at the end of the half. However, with the pursuit of the next two quarters, they finally took the victory firmly in their hands. This is not only the first time in Doncic's career to taste the taste of winning the series, but also the first series that the Lone Rangers have won in 11 years since the 2011 Finals. Nowitzki, who led his team to win the series in the playoffs last time, also updated his social media specially: "A very watchable round of the game!" Move on to the next goal. ”
The lone ranger, who ranks fourth in the West in the regular season, will be the Sun in the first place in the West in the Western Conference semifinals. The league's best-record team, with a comeback Booker and a bouncing Paul, eliminated the Pelicans 4-2 and will be the Lone Ranger's opponent in the next round. "We have to play our best basketball performance next and try to beat them," Doncic said.
In the sixth game of the series against the Jazz, Doncic had a comprehensive statistic of 24 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in a single game. It is worth mentioning that this game with the Jazz is the 16th playoff game of Doncic's career, and his playoff total has accumulated 523 points, which makes him the second-fewest player in NBA history to break the 500-point mark. Faster than him, Only Michael Jordan scored 500 points in 14 games.
Therefore, Doncic's outstanding personal play, breaking through the barriers of the first round of the playoffs, may seem to many people to be a matter of time. However, Kidd, the lone coach who has also been a player, knows the difficulty and difficulty of this process. "It's not easy to win the first series of my career," Kidd said after the game, "I now hope he can take off all the pressure and burden." ”
The Lone Ranger and Doncic were visibly tied by the upcoming series victories in the first half of the game. After the intermission, though, they relaxed completely. Coupled with Kidd's beginning to use a large number of small lineups in the third quarter, just like last season's Western Conference Semifinals sixth game, reversing the Jazz's 25-point Clippers, the Lone Rangers also played a wave of 36-19 in the third quarter with a small lineup, directly snatching back the initiative of the game.
Throughout the second half of the game, taking advantage of the high mobility of the small lineup, the Lone Ranger created a lot of opportunities for outside shots, and in the two quarters they cumulatively shot 14 three-pointers. The Lone Ranger's athletic goals from outside the three-point line were on par with the Jazz's athletic goals scored throughout the second half, which explains why the Lone Rangers could strike back and turn the tide in the second half.
"We were able to make adjustments that we could better get into the inside of our opponents, and we trusted each other enough to make that happen," concluded Jaylen Brunson, who scored 24 points.
In terms of merit, the Lone Ranger can win the series again after 11 years, except for the core Doncic, Brunson is also indispensable. The defender averaged 27.8 points per game in six games. Especially in the first three games of Doncic's suspension due to injury, Brunson single-handedly carried the team's attack. Moreover, brunson made only four turnovers in the entire round, making it the highest average score per game for players in playoff history who had no more than five total turnovers in a series. Previously, the holder of this record was the "big bird" Bird in 1986, and Bird also made no more than 5 mistakes in the Eastern Conference semifinals that year, averaging 27.2 points per game.
Driven by a duo like Doncic and Brunson, the Mavericks were in full swing in the second half of game 6 with the Jazz. In the third quarter alone, the Mavericks shot 8-of-12 from beyond the three-point line, and, with a fluid system, 10 of the 13 athletic goals the Mavericks hit in the third quarter were assisted by teammates. "I like to share the ball with my teammates," Doncic said, "and if the opponent is on the defensive end, there must be teammates who will be vacated." And we've been facing a similar situation all season, so I think we played very well this time. Basketball is actually very simple, it is to create a 4-on-3 situation. ”
It was with great individuality and unity that the Lone Ranger completed his first series victory in 11 years. Coincidentally, on April 28, 2011, US time, the Lone Ranger defeated the opponent of the first round of the playoffs, the Blazers, on this day, and advanced to the second round. Kidd, who was still the team's main controller at the time, is still impressed by that day after 11 years. "I really feel old with that," Kidd joked, "and it was on this day that we won away from Portland." I remember a lot of people thinking we couldn't make the first round. ”
As a result, the 2011 Lone Ranger not only passed the first round, but also reached the finals, and finally defeated the Heat, who had just formed the Big Three, and won the championship. Eleven years later, Doncic's Lone Rangers broke through the first round again, and what will be their fate this time?