Luka Doncic Owns Up to Costly Mistake in Mavericks’ Loss to Jazz

On Thursday night, it looked as though the stars had aligned for the Dallas Mavericks in their bid to put an end to their three-game losing streak. Even with Kyrie Irving having to miss out due to a shoulder injury, the Mavericks still had Luka Doncic around to lead the way in a contest against one of the worst teams in the NBA, the Utah Jazz. However, the Mavs’ late-game woes continued to haunt them as they have now lost their fourth consecutive game in the clutch, 115-113, courtesy of an open dunk from John Collins.

There was plenty of confusion from the Mavs on defense in the final Jazz offensive possession. Jordan Clarkson was isolated against Naji Marshall at the top of the key, and there were two Mavericks defenders — Doncic and Quentin Grimes — on the left side of the court. In the process of receiving instructions from the bench, Doncic and Grimes had their coverage completely mixed up, leaving Collins open on the interior for a wide-open dunk that Dereck Lively II was too late to contest.

It was an inexcusable blunder for a Mavericks team with contending aspirations, and Doncic, as he has done multiple times this season already, took the blame once more for their defeat to the Jazz.

“That was a misunderstanding. I thought I was gonna go hit and Grimes thought he was gonna go hit…We misunderstood the bench. That’s on me,” Doncic said following the game, per Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News.

If the call from the Mavericks bench was to double Clarkson, then it would have made sense for Grimes to be the one to take on that responsibility. He was higher up on the floor after all. But both him and Doncic were caught in two minds. Grimes stunted a little bit to put some pressure on Clarkson, while Doncic was guarding exactly no one — leaving Collins in a ton of space.

This is an error that cannot be excused at any level of organized basketball, let alone in the NBA. And now, the Mavericks continue to spiral even deeper into a rut, especially given how heartbreaking their past four losses have been.

Mavericks’ crunch-time woes continue

The Mavericks can be considered a bit unlucky over their past four games. Their loss against the Phoenix Suns came as a result of a 50-50 foul call at the death, and then they simply fell prey to Nikola Jokic and Stephen Curry’s greatness in two close defeats to the Denver Nuggets and Golden State Warriors, respectively. But this loss to the Jazz will be the one that hurts the most.

The Jazz were without starting center Walker Kessler on the night, and Lauri Markkanen wasn’t even able to finish the game after he got hit on the face in the fourth quarter. The Mavericks were also able to mount a comeback from 16 down in the fourth and they even tied the game at 113 thanks to a Klay Thompson three — only for everything to crumble at the end.