Luka Doncic has certainly impressed in his first-ever trip to the NBA Finals with the Dallas Mavericks, but there is one aspect of the game that he has surprisingly struggled with, free throws. Doncic has been so bad at the line, in fact, that even Shaquille O’Neal has a higher free throw percentage than him in the Finals.
Luka Doncic: 6-13 FTM, 46.2%
Shaquille O’Neal: 185-382 FTM, 48.4%
It is a much smaller sample size, of course, but that is a woeful percentage for Doncic. What makes the 25-year-old’s struggles here so bizarre, though, is that he shot 80.6% from the line in the three rounds prior to this one. I don’t think these struggles are down to him choking in any way, and I also doubt this has anything to do with his injuries, so it is rather puzzling.
It’d be interesting to see if this ends up just being a mini-slump of sorts or if Doncic just keeps shooting poorly from the line the rest of the way. If I had to make a prediction right now, I’d say it’s the former.
Along with those struggles at the line, Doncic has also not done a great job of taking care of the ball, averaging 6.0 turnovers per game in this series. That is the worst mark in NBA Finals history, as he has jumped ahead of Stephen Jackson and Kevin Johnson, who averaged 4.3 turnovers per game on this stage.
While the Boston Celtics’ defense has forced Doncic into coughing up the ball at times, many of these turnovers were just down to him simply being a bit too careless. Every possession counts at this stage and you’d hope the Slovenian isn’t quite as sloppy moving forward.
All that being said, Doncic has still played very well as I alluded to at the start. The five-time All-Star is averaging 31.0 points, 10.5 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 3.0 steals per game while shooting 51.1% from the field.
Doncic has arguably been the best player on the court but his teammates have failed to step up and hence, the Mavericks find themselves down 2-0. With the series now shifting to Dallas, you’d expect his supporting cast to play better and for Doncic’s sake, I hope they do.
Luka Doncic Says The Mavericks’ Main Problem Is Their Offense
Many reasons have been thrown around at this point as to why the Mavericks lost those two games and Luka shared his thoughts in the lead-up to Game 3. Doncic praised the Mavericks’ defense and blamed the offense for them being down 2-0.
“Our defense, has not been bad. We just can’t really score. That’s our main problem right now. I think we’re getting some great looks & like I said we have confidence everybody can make a shot that’s shooting the ball on our team so we just gotta keep believing it.”
The Mavericks allowed the Celtics to shoot 46.4% from the field and 32.1% from beyond the arc in the first two games. If someone had told you that before the series, you might have thought that the teams might split Games 1 and 2.
The reason that isn’t the case is that the Mavericks’ offense has struggled. They didn’t even get to 100 points in those games in Boston and if that continues to be the case in Dallas, then it’s all over for them.
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