Last season, Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic emerged as a Top 5 MVP candidate. Despite that, one aspect of his game was sorely lacking, his play in clutch moments.
Everyone remembers his game-winning shot against the Clippers in Game 4 of their first-round series, but during the regular season, the Mavericks were 17-24 in clutch games (which are defined as a game within five points with five minutes to go or less). In clutch games last season, Luka Doncic shot 17.1% from three-point range and 64.5% from the free-throw line for the Mavs.
This season, Luka Doncic will attempt to improve on those numbers and he got off to a good start with a big win over the Denver Nuggets in overtime. One that could potentially carry strong momentum over for the Mavericks for a substantial amount of time.
On the daily Locked On Mavericks Podcast, we discussed the Mavericks win over the Nuggets and how Luka Doncic put the Mavs on his back and carried them to a win.
Nick Angstadt: Luka Doncic, according to ESPN Stats & Info scored or assisted on 29 of the Mavericks last 38 points of the game. That's 76% of their points beginning with his assist at the 7:38 mark in the fourth quarter. The Nuggets scored 29 points as a team during that span. So the Mavericks outscored them 38 to 29 during that last stretch from 7:38 in the fourth quarter till the end of overtime.
Crazy… and let's do it again. That's what star players do. That's what number one players do. That's what top five players do. That's what the best player on the team does. That's what a guy that wins in the clutch does. They go out and they put the team on their back and basically put the gauntlet on and say fine, I'll do it myself like Thanos and that's what Luka did.
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