SUMMARY
- Luka Doncic cites a lack of aggressiveness for the Mavericks' Game 1 loss vs the Clippers.
- The Mavs went completely cold in the second quarter and scored just 8 points.
Luka Doncic went into detail regarding why the Dallas Mavericks lost their most recent game. As some NBA fans may be aware, the Mavs finished this season with the 5th best record in the Western Conference and have matched up against the Los Angeles Clippers for the first round of the playoffs.
Since Kawhi Leonard ended up missing this game as reported, the Mavericks were considered favorites to win. However, things did not go as expected for the team considering that the Clippers won by double digits and defended home court. After the game had concluded Luka was interviewed and questioned about his thoughts on this loss.
Luka Doncic admits to playing with a lack of aggressiveness vs the Los Angeles Clippers
Fans will know that Luka Doncic has already faced the Clippers in the previous year’s playoffs. Although he is still relatively young in comparison to the majority of the league, Doncic is quite experienced and has already gone through the pressure of the playoffs multiple times.
A single bad shooting stretch or slump can have an enormous impact on the outcome of a playoff game. Luka admitted that the Mavericks did not play well during the entire first half of the game. Since he finished the night scoring a game-high 33 points, one would assume that Luka would blame others for their loss. However, he took complete responsibility and blamed his lack of awareness for the game being out of reach.
“I just gotta stay aggressive you know. That was my bad in the first half wasn’t aggressive enough and find the open man… I don’t know why we did but we just gotta watch film and come out in the second game with the same energy that we came out with in the second half…”
The Dallas Mavericks scored just 8 points in the second quarter of Game 1
Luka Doncic was right on the money about the Mavs struggling throughout the first half of the game. Dallas scored 22 points in the first quarter while the Clippers scored 34 and took a 12-point lead. Things got worse in the second quarter when the Mavs scored just 8 points while the Clippers had 22.