Luke Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks fell short of defeating the Phoenix Suns in their regular-season opener on Wednesday night. Despite leading all players in the game with 32 points, the Mavs star admitted that he needs to improve his shot selection moving forward, per ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
Luka Doncic on clutch shot selection: "I've got to stop taking these very bad shots. It wasn't just the last one, but it was a couple of them. It's not good for me, it's not good for the team and I've got to change it."
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) December 24, 2020
Late in the fourth quarter against the Suns, with a little over a minute remaining in the game, the Mavs were only down three points. Doncic proceeded to take a contested three-point shot that was 27 feet from the basket that missed.
Following Doncic's miss, Devin Booker grabbed the rebound and would make an 18-foot jumper that would extend Pheonix's lead to five with 41 seconds remaining. As a result, Dallas would have to play the foul game, leading to them losing 106-102.
The 2018-2019 Rookie of the Year finished the night with a game-high 32 points, along with eight rebounds, and five assists. However, he only made 11 of his 26 field-goal attempts, which included him missing all six of his three-point tries.
We've all witnessed Doncic make some remarkable shots in the clutch from three-point range in his young career. With that being said, sometimes the best play — as someone like LeBron James has done — is creating an open shot for someone else.
Of course, Dallas would prefer to have Doncic take the shots for the team down the final stretches of a game. On the other hand, when he's guarded well, passing out of an awful shot in certain moments could be better for the team.
There's no doubt that Luka Doncic is one of the most well-rounded players in the NBA and the sky is the limit for him. But if he hopes to reach his potential, he'll need to improve his shot selection for the Mavericks as he looks to perfect his game.
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