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With how successful the Dallas Mavericks have been this season and especially in the playoffs, there have been drastic proclamations saying that the duo of stars in Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving could be the best backcourt of all time. However, sports analyst Bill Simmons feels as if the conversation is rooted in heavy recency bias as the Mavericks led by the dynamic duo are one win away from reaching the NBA Finals.
Simmons would talk about the topic on his self-titled podcast where he is telling people to slow their role in saying Doncic and Irving are the best backcourt in the vast history of the NBA. His first point would be that this is the first season where they are achieving success where last season in the short time they played, they “missed the playoffs.”
“This was floated around a lot this week people are just like ‘Luka and Kyrie are the best backcourt of all time’ and it's like, well they played together two months last year and went backwards and missed the playoffs,” Simmons said.
Simmons makes a case against the Mavericks duo in Doncic and Irving
He would double down on his comments regarding the Mavericks stars as even mentioning how this season, they were just the fifth seed despite winning 50 games and reaching the Western Conference Finals. Simmons would then mention there is a clear cut option to the question of who are the greatest backcourt of all time with him offering up the answer of Golden State Warriors stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
“They were still below .500 the last games. This year they were a five seed and then won a couple rounds,” Simmons said. “As a protector of NBA history I would just like to mention a couple people for you, Steph Curry and Kay Thompson, not sure you've heard of those guys.”
“4 titles, 6 finals together, Curry made 4 First Team All NBAs, 4 seconds, 2 thirds, won 2 MVPs,” Simmons continued. “Klay [Thompson] made a 3rd team All NBA, they're the greatest shooting backcourt of all time by any calculation. They were on teams that won 67 and 73 games in back to back years. I would say the bar is pretty high with those two guys. I'm not ready to just be like, hey new guys best backcourt ever, like let's be responsible everybody out there.”
Curry and Thompson seem to have the best case of the greatest backcourt ever as Simmons explains not just the talent of being two of the best shooters of all time, but also the massive success the two had with Golden State. There is no doubt that Doncic and Irving are an insanely talented duo, but the results have not shown just yet as Simmons feels people need to pump the brakes.
Simmons expects Doncic to be the villain in likely NBA Finals series
Speaking of Simmons, he's been known to be a Boston Celtics fans and with the Mavericks likely facing them in the NBA Finals, barring an insane miracle from the Minnesota Timberwolves, he talked about Doncic being the “villain.” He talked about on his show that the Slovenian-born player is going to infuriate Celtics fans.
“He’s (Luka Doncic) going to be an unbelievable villain. I was on some text threads with some Celtic fan friends and we're just all ready, we're just ready to be annoyed by this guy for two weeks,” Simmons said. “Even today, I would say the Mavs actually got a more favorable whistle than Dallas in this game. Everybody on Minnesota felt like they were in foul trouble at one point, and Luka, still every time they go to a timeout he's going under the ref and it looks like he's like pleading with a meter maid not to put the ticket on the car. It's just his demeanor. I think it's gonna go over great in Boston, oh no it's gonna go terribly he's gonna get razzed, yelled, heckled, people are gonna hate him.”
Doncic puts blame on himself for the Mavericks' Game 4 loss
Still, before the Mavericks think of reaching the NBA Finals, they have to finish their Western Conference Finals series against Minnesota as they took a 3-0 lead though the Timberwolves won Game 5. Despite putting up 28 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists, Doncic put the blame on himself for the 105-100 loss according to ClutchPoints' Mavericks reporter Joey Mistretta.
“I think that game is on me,” Doncic said to the media after the game. “Just didn't give enough energy. So we gotta do better. They won one game, we just gotta focus on the next one.”
“We won three games, like I said it's first to four,” Doncic later added about what his mindset is heading into Game 5. “No matter if you win in four or in seven, just gotta win four….We gotta win four games. What mindset? We gotta win one more game, that's it.”
Irving said Doncic is “not alone” heading into Game 5
In the other part of the duo, Irving had a relatively down game compared to the rest of the series as he scored 16 points, making six of his 18 attempts from the field. He would say that Doncic is not alone in taking the loss expressing that “we know we didn't play with the best energy.”
“I mean, he's not alone in this,” Irving said. “I expect him to say something like that, especially knowing how much he cares and how much he wants to win. How much he wants to lead our group. So I expect nothing less. I think you heard me too just say that it's on me. That's what you're supposed to hear from the leaders of your team. We know that we didn't play with the best energy, we didn't create enough opportunities for us to get easy baskets… Just gotta take the hit on the chin, man. It's not the first time we've been hit. Just competitive sports. It's what makes it great.”
“Those are things that I'm going to correct moving forward. But I just gotta stay aggressive,” Irving continued. “We just have to consistently do the little things.. Coming out tonight we felt like we were okay. You can tell it was an emotional fatigue… Everybody was pressured. Now we just gotta deal with this one, deal with this loss and get ready for Minnesota and enjoy that ride there man because it's going to be hostile.”
History is on Dallas' side in Western Conference Finals
In any sense, the Mavericks look to finally end the series Thursday night though the game will be in enemy territory in Minnesota. However, history is on Dallas' side as no other team has came back from a 3-0 series deficit as they look to get back to their first NBA Finals since 2011 where they beat the Miami Heat.
