In the first round of the playoffs series with the Jazz, the Lone Rangers eliminated their opponents 4-2 despite Luka Doncic's absence from the first three games due to injury, which seemed to prove their outstanding status in the final stages of the regular season and also stood the test of the playoffs.
However, it turns out that the Lone Ranger has just not yet met a real opponent. Facing the regular season champion Suns in the division semifinals, they were thoroughly pinched in their first game, leaving Doncic in a one-on-five dilemma, and finally lost 114-121 without suspense.
What is even more desperate is that although Doncic's personal performance is impeccable, in the face of the sun with the overall dominance of the lineup configuration, game experience, and bench depth, the Lone Ranger has no chance of winning. It seems that this round of a series of one person single out the other team has lost suspense after the first game.
As a once-in-a-decade young talent, Doncic has already won all the honors that can be won in Europe before the age of 20, and has come to Dallas as a flower show. He averaged 21.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and six assists in his rookie season, was named an All-Star in his second year of his career, and led his team back to the playoffs.
However, because the "post-Dirk era" team building work was not smooth, the Lone Ranger has never been able to find a reliable helper for Doncic, and has been eliminated in the first round for the past two years. During this period, Doncic played a total of 13 playoff games, averaging 33.5 points per game, a statistic that even surpassed the basketball god Michael Jordan and ranked first in history. But in the face of defeat, this actually highlights the embarrassment of the lone ranger.
This season, the Lone Rangers bid farewell to meritorious coach Rick Carlisle, hired Jason Kidd as manager, and sent Porzingis, who had repeatedly proved to be out of tune with Doncic, before the trade deadline, and finally showed a clear upward momentum in the final stages of the season.
According to statistics, in the last 30 games of the regular season, the Lone Ranger achieved an excellent record of 23 wins and 7 losses, and the 76.7% win rate in the same period ranked second in the league, second only to the Celtics, and even better than the sun.
With this strong end, the Mavericks eventually ended the regular season as the fourth seed in the West, first round against the Jazz. While Doncic missed the first three games due to a calf strain, they still took a 2-1 lead thanks to the excellent performances of Jason Bronson, Maxi Kleber and others. Doncic then returned to the line of fire and averaged 29 points, 10.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists in the next three series, leading the team to promotion.
Today is the first divisional semi-final match of Doncic's career, and despite being the second-placed Mikal Bridges of the Year defensive player of the year, he still showed flawless performances.
In the whole game, the 23-year-old young star shot 15-of-30, 11-of-14 free throws, and one person shot down 45 points, grabbed 12 rebounds at the same time, and delivered 8 assists, becoming the first player in the team's history to cut 40+10+5 in a single game in the playoffs, and also the player under the age of 24 in NBA history who played the most 40+ games in the playoffs (6 games).
During the game, Doncic continued to show his "offensive kaleidoscope", various foot changes to play the defense between the palms, back to eat Paul was fouled into a 2+1 to show a soft feel, and even a two-handed dunk after the breakthrough.
However, apart from substitute center Kleber, who scored 5 of 6 three-pointers and shot 16 points in the first half, Doncic could hardly find any other reliable support, and the whole game gave people a deep sense of helplessness. The final 7-point difference does not truly reflect the one-sidedness of this game, the reality is that the Lone Ranger has not taken a single lead in the whole game, and the maximum point difference on the field has been stretched to 21 points.
One statistic best exemplifies Doncic's isolation: in this game, he alone scored more points than the Lone Ranger's other four starters combined.
The Suns, on the other hand, are in stark contrast to the Lone Rangers: In today's game, the Suns' five starters all scored in double figures, with Ayton scoring a team-high 25 points, Booker contributing a quasi-triple-double with 23 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists, Paul with 19 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, and Crowder and Bridges, including Cameron Johnson on the bench, also had double-digit scores.
In fact, today's sun is clearly not doing its best. One of the most direct examples: Paul played in the first quarter with 4:45 left on the field and sat down until 5:37 before halftime, when the opponent forced the point difference to only 4 minutes left before replacing Payne again.
Throughout the first half, Paul played only 12 minutes and 52 seconds, and only played 28 minutes and 45 seconds in the whole game. It was clear that the Suns wanted Paul, who had borne too much of a burden in the first round because of Booker's injury, to take a good rest. This originally intense divisional semi-final turned out to be a "cat and mouse" easy game in the eyes of the Sun coaching staff.
Doncic is undoubtedly the best of all the players on the field today, but he can't rely on one man to play against the best team in the league.
Paul, 36, is getting older and more demon, and under his leadership, the young core of the Suns is also thriving, and Booker, Ayton, Bridges, Johnson and even Payne have become more confident and mature after last year's Finals trip.
They have a great leader, a star scorer with perfect offensive techniques, a restricted-edge force with dominance on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and the best 3D flanks in the league..., what about the Lone Ranger? It seems that only Doncic.
With the gradual aging of James, Durant and other senior stars, the NBA is in a special period of power transfer, Doncic, as the best young star in the league, is naturally one of the next generation of façade figures that the league focuses on cultivating, but if there is no record as a support, it is difficult for him to stand out among the players of the same generation.
Doncic and the Lone Ranger have renewed their contracts until 2027, but around him, Hardaway Jr., Dinwiddie, Bertans, Bullock, Finney-Smith and others have locked up salary space for at least the next two years, not considering Bronson, whose contract is about to expire this summer.
Where is the Lone Ranger Road? How long can Doncic's patience last? LeBron James experienced a similar dilemma, and now, the same problem is in front of Doncic.