What does Luka Doncic say in the NBA offseason? “Not today.”

Luka Doncic responded to his critics. The result was the third-largest victory in NBA Finals history.

It’s possible that in his entire career, the 25-year-old five-time All-NBA honoree has never faced such censure as after Game 3 of the Finals. Doncic fouled out with 4:12 left in this contest, scored 27 points on 27 shots and played matador defense against the Celtics’ drive-and-kick attack. He watched crunch time from the bench as Boston took a 3-0 lead on Dallas’ home court to nearly win a championship.

“His defensive performance is unacceptable,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said after the game, with representative vitriol. “It’s a hole on the ground. The Celtics attack him; they are ahead in the series because they attacked him defensively. … He costs his team dearly.

This isn’t the usual way pundits talk about Doncic, one of the best young players in NBA history. Luka missed the playoffs as a rookie, but it didn’t matter: he was almost unanimously named Rookie of the Year with a bright future. In his second and third seasons, he lost close series to the Clippers, but excelled in defeat with both outstanding numbers and highlight reels.

In his fourth season, Doncic exceeded his limits by reaching the conference finals with a no. 4 seeds, creating a historically lopsided upset along the way. In his fifth season, the Mavericks missed the playoffs again, but Luka still made the All-NBA First Team and received MVP votes, as the talk around the team was more about their (initially) ineffective trade for Kyrie Irving and their late-season diversion into a tank. And in his sixth season, Luka reached the finale to further his burgeoning legend.

But then came the Finals and a 3-0 deficit against a deeper, more complete Celtics team. No team in NBA history has overcome such a lousy start to win a playoff series, although the Mavericks are just one step down that uncharted path, following a resounding 122-84 victory in Game 4 Doncic scored 29 points, including 25 in the first half. , while no Celtic collected more than 15 points in the entire match.

Offense has never been the question with Luka, even against the best, most locked down defenses in the playoffs. He is quite simply one of the greatest statistical players in playoff history. Among qualified players in the Basketball Reference rankings, Luka ranks second in career playoff scoring (31 points per game), behind Michael Jordan. In the advanced plus-minus stats box, Luka ranks fourth in offensive impact; the other players in the top five have combined for 15 championships and 12 Finals MVP awards.

Career playoff leaders

But Windhorst et al. weren’t referring to Doncic’s offensive production with their barbs after Game 3. It was his effort at the other end.

The Mavericks don’t need Jrue Holiday-level defense from Doncic on the perimeter. Due to his offensive burden, Luka usually guards the opposition’s weakest scorer, and due to Luka’s playmaking ability, the Mavericks are able to sacrifice offense at other positions to surround him with Defensive ends like Derrick Jones Jr. It’s a formation in perfect harmony. , most of the time.

But the Celtics’ five-out offense, with no weak spot for Luka to hide on, pushed this setup past its breaking point. Luka was the main target as Boston revved up its driving and kicking machine, marking the most extreme manifestation of a trend that has lasted since the playoffs. As ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne wrote after Game 3: “According to Second Spectrum, Doncic has allowed the three highest leak percentages on drives in a playoff series in the last 10 years.” In the first round, the LA Clippers passed him 65.2% of the time. In the second round, the Oklahoma City Thunder outgained him on defense 59 percent of the time. Against the Celtics, that percentage rose to 67.7 percent.

Luka is 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 230 pounds; this is not the case for a short, slight point guard like Trae Young who struggles on defense. Point guards are rarely the best players of NBA champions – Steph Curry has arguably been the only exception for decades – because it’s usually too easy to game plan against them and go after them for a long time. series. But in size alone, Luka is not like most point guards; he should at least be able to serve as an acceptable defender rather than a disastrous one.

And in Game 4, he did just that, as a lively Mavericks team sprinted past a Celtics team moving seemingly at half speed. Give Luka credit, even if the adjustment may be too small, too late to impact the final outcome of the series:

But here’s the weird part. Lucas was Never the main problem in the Mavericks’ previous Finals losses, even when his defensive efforts waned. During its so-called “unacceptable” Game 3, Dallas actually upgraded the Celtics by nine points when Luka was on the court; they lost only because they collapsed without him (and because they went without him longer than expected, thanks to a sixth foul).

Through the first three games of the Finals, the Mavericks had a -4 point differential in 118 minutes with Doncic on the court, versus negative-28 in 26 minutes without him. Dallas’ offense and, more surprisingly, the defense collapsed when Luka hit the bench.

Mavericks with and without Luka Doncic after three final losses

Don’t pay too much attention to the discrepancy in defensive ratings, which is largely the result of random shooting luck. Through the first three games of the Finals, Boston made just 31 percent of its 3-point shots with Luka on the court, compared to 48 percent without him.

But this data shows that Luka was not the main problem as Dallas fell behind. Rather, the key issue was the lack of contribution from Luka’s teammates – both role players and teammate Kyrie Irving – as the Mavericks held Boston to 107, 106 and 105 points but never reached 100 themselves. And it’s extremely obvious that Dallas’ offense has collapsed without its primary playmaker and scorer.

That wasn’t the case in Game 4, as the Mavericks combined greater defensive energy with a more well-rounded offensive approach. Led by Luka, five Mavericks scored in double figures (several reached that threshold during the extended blowout) and the team sank 15 3-pointers, after making just 22 total over the course. of the first three matches.

It remains to be seen whether this turnaround continues in Game 5 in Boston; it’s possible that the continued absence of Kristaps Porzingis will give the Mavericks the boost they need to make this series competitive. Without Porzingis, the Celtics don’t quite have the floor spacing on offense or rim protection on defense that make them so formidable when in top form.

Or it’s also possible that Game 4 represented one last gasp of life from the underdog and one final gift to Mavericks fans in exchange for their support throughout this magical run to the playoffs. This contest is reminiscent of the same moment in the 2017 Finals. In that series, the favored Warriors won the first two games at home, then won a close third game in Cleveland; they had the chance, just like the 2023-24 Celtics, to become the first team in league history to sweep both the conference finals and the Finals. But the Cavaliers ran away with Game 4 at home, before finally succumbing when the Warriors clinched the title at home in Game 5.

That final result could well come to Boston on Monday; in fact, that’s the most likely outcome at this point. But if the Celtics win the gentleman’s scanning and their record 18th title, it won’t be Luka’s fault.