The Suns' foundation is based on finding an open man, and after the initial double team, it wasn't a big problem. Whenever Phoenix hunted Doncic in pick&rolls, the Mavs blitzed the ball handler, forcing Paul and Booker to get rid of the ball and then rotate to the next man. To be honest, the first part of the plan didn't work that well at all. The Mavericks came back to Dallas with clear objectives in mind: adjustments hiding Luka, a higher defensive aggressiveness, and the need to include others offensively more. Too bad it didn't really matter at that point, while Point God was entertaining the crowd with all kinds of dribble combos to get to his spots and incredible shot fakes to get completely wide open. Phoenix didn't fall for the bite, and Dallas knew it was time to change something up.ĬP3 hunted Luka a couple of times more, and Jason Kidd had seen enough by now and decided to try and hide Luka, putting him low to start the possession and instructing Kleber to follow anyone who wanted to set a pick for Paul. While Jae Crowder and Chris Paul were running through their sets, Crowder got opportunities to attack Luka's closeout or punish him in Pick and Pop.ĭevin Booker joined the Suns' offensive party, playing 1-4 screen with Dallas sticking to their plan but trying to rotate harder on the Pop. Dallas didn't want to switch, so Doncic was late to recover. Phoenix decided to really put Luka's ability to defend on a test from the start of the series. The offensive genius was targeted more than 20 times per game in PnRs for his defensive weaknesses while exposing Phoenix's stars to the same problem on the other side of the court.īasketNews' Augustas Suliauskas analyzed the evolution of Luka in this series and the chess match between Monty Williams and Jason Kidd. In the NBA playoffs, where everything is all about the matchup hunting, Luka Doncic has been involved in most of them. How did Mavericks end up beating last year's grand finalists? With this Game 7 victory, Mavs tied the 5th biggest win in an entire NBA history, and now Dallas is set to face the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference final.
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