DALLAS — Heavy is the crown.
Luka Doncic advanced further than the league's MVP. He knocked off the league's spring darling Anthony Edwards. He was anointed by some unnamed author as the "best in the world". He reached his first NBA Finals and was the consensus best player entering the series.
And now he's on the verge of being swept after a truly ignominious Game 3 that saw him foul out in a messy game where he racked up more complaints than assists.
You can't savor the awesome moments of barking at the crowd in Minnesota and Oklahoma City without the sharp notes you'll hear when you have to face the music. You're only as good as your last series.
Doncic hasn't had a bad series. Doncic has put up numbers that will provide his supporters with the chance to blame his role players. But so much of the identity that the Mavericks have around him has been revealed as simply not good enough.
Doncic was looking to become the player with the highest season and playoff usage to ever win a title, the first player with a top-40 usage to win a title. That style is difficult. He struggled in the first two rounds, but the Mavericks' paint-clamping defense held tough. Then, Doncic tore up the Timberwolves in what was a favorable matchup.
But in these Finals, he's seen an opponent in Boston that both has a better team and plays as a team. The Mavericks have the best player, but play like a team trying to showcase the best player. The Celtics play like a team trying to showcase one another.
It's not that Doncic is selfish, he looks to pass in the flow of his extremely ball-dominant style. But so much of his game is about tough shots. So much of Kyrie Irving's game is about tough shots.
The Celtics have gone up 3-0 because they've found ways to create good shots, not tough shots. And Doncic trails 0-3 because not only does he only create tough shots for himself and stagnant shots for his teammates, but the Celtics have attacked him over and over again.
Doncic started off marvelously, attacking and riding the momentum of the crowd, but something changed in the second quarter and the ugly underside of Doncic's game came out. He started complaining and throwing tantrums when calls didn't go his way. His defense was sloppy.
Every time in this series that he's gotten Al Horford on a switch, an older player he should be able to take off the dribble, he's let him off the hook with stepback 3s. Doncic finished 1-of-7 from 3.
His fouls were fueled by frustration. The final sixth foul was a bang-bang play that could have gone either way, but also very obviously a foul. And yet after the game, Doncic did not take responsibility, did not own up for finishing with 27 points on 27 shots with just six assists and fouling out when his team needed him most.
Luka Doncic on fouling out against the Celtics:
“I don't want to say nothing, but 6 fouls in the NBA Finals? I'm like this (hands up). Come on, man. We’re better than that.” pic.twitter.com/5nqboeJWx4
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) June 13, 2024
Doncic is a competitor, that's a good thing.
But he wants to compete on his terms, and only on his terms, and that has held the Mavericks back in this series. Now, they made the Finals. Doncic is a winning player, but he's still 25, only now entering his prime. And he's learning the toughest lessons about what great basketball is.
With the Mavericks' defense finally exposed because Boston can actually hit open shots and nullify Dallas' commitment to rim protection, Game 3 needed to be an all-time Luka game. This was the moment, an opportunity to put his first real entry into Finals lore. Instead, it ended with Doncic on the bench after a night of complaints.
The series isn't over. If Doncic can lead Dallas to the first ever 3-0 comeback in NBA history, it will make him an instant legend. Nothing about this series against a much, much better team overshadows what was an incredible individual and team season for Doncic.
But Game 3 was a moment in the long arc of what will be an incredible career. It brought to mind another great's first entry to the Finals in 2007, when LeBron James was swept by the Spurs. That was just the first moment for James, when he was too young, with a team that wasn't ready for that level.
Doncic will learn from these Finals, but Game 3 made it clear he's not quite ready yet for the subtle intricacies that help make great players legends. He lost his composure, he lost his position and he lost the Mavericks' best chance of making the Finals a real series.
The crown shines, but Game 3 shows how heavy it can feel.
