The fallout continues from that incredible Game 7 between the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns, as it still seems almost unbelievable that we witnessed something like that. The Mavs crushed the Suns in Phoenix to advance to the Conference Finals, an outcome that almost no one saw coming.
There was no lack of chippiness in the series and the losing side was always going to have a rough time once it ended. All the talking started with Devin Booker and Chris Paul mocking Luka Doncic’s defense after they went up 2-0 in the series. Then we had the now-infamous video of Booker lying down on the floor for an extended period of time after a foul in Game 5, and joking about how it was: it was the Luka special.
“The Luka Special.”
– Devin Booker
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) May 11, 2022
The thing with talking so much trash is that you better back it up or else you risk being trolled to oblivion. Unfortunately for Devin Booker, he came nowhere close to backing his talk. He failed to hit the 20-point mark in Games 6 or 7 and was a woeful -62 in the nine quarters after the “Luka special” incident.
Doncic, meanwhile, who shrugged off the incident by stating that he doesn’t care about it, balled out big time. Luka scored 33 points in Game 6 to go with a further 35 in Game 7 and was a +55 in those nine quarters. It is safe to say he had the last laugh as the Mavericks humiliated the Suns.
Booker perhaps needs to humble himself a little bit, but this is just who he is. Embiid was asked on the “Old Man & the Three” podcast with JJ Reddick about who were some of the best trash talkers around, and he named Booker as one of them. He is quite brash on the court, but in this particular instance, it has backfired big time. Booker now gets to contemplate how things panned out and for his sake, we hope he bounces back next season.
