DALLAS — The Mavericks’ 103-94 win in Game 3 of their second-round series against the Phoenix Suns made one aspect of Luka Doncic’s ferocious competitiveness clear:
Pick on him at your own risk.
After two days of criticism about his lax defense in Game 2 Wednesday night, Doncic turned into the targeter, the hunter and the do-it-all aggressor Friday night in American Airlines Center to cut Phoenix’s series lead to 2-1.
He tallied 26 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists and two steals in 34 minutes, one dime shy of his fourth career playoff triple-double.
He overcame second-half foul trouble to end the game with MVP chants at the foul line.
He even mocked veteran All-Star Chris Paul by jerking his head back a few times to mimic a flop and Mikail Bridges by shaking his head after backing down the Defensive Player of the Year runner-up in the post and scoring over him on the ground.
Doncic left no doubt Phoenix’s championship-contending squad wouldn’t expose his shortcomings this time.
The Suns cut the Mavericks’ lead to 10 points (96-86) with four minutes remaining and then a Paul 3-pointer and Bridges layup brought them within 8 points (99-91) with about a minute left.
But Reggie Bullock hit a corner three in front of the bench on the next possession to restore the double-digit lead, snap the Mavericks’ 11-game losing streak to the Suns and ensure they avoided their first three-game losing streak since Dec. 3-7.
In 439 best-of-seven NBA playoff series that have started 2-0, just 31 teams (7.1%) have overcome the deficit to advance. Dallas still faces a hole entering Sunday afternoon’s quick turnaround for Game 4 against the NBA’s only 60-win team.
But Jalen Brunson’s 28-point bounceback to lead six Mavericks who scored in double figures and provide Doncic a scoring and ball-handling complement to balance the attack marked a positive start.
“I know I had to do better,” Doncic said. “That was really poor that second half (of Game 2). I knew I could do better. I think I made a big jump on defense this year, and the second half was horrible by me, and I knew I had to give back to my team and play better defense.”
Hours before tipoff Friday, many fans worried on social media that a critical comment from coach Jason Kidd after the team’s morning shootaround would upset Doncic.
The Mavericks coach said Doncic didn’t just need teammates to help “protect” him with rotations and blitzes when the Suns hunted pick-and-roll switches, as they did mercilessly in the second half of Game 2.
Doncic had to “participate,” too.
“He’s got to play defense,” Kidd said. “There’s no secret. They’re gonna put him in every pick and roll. They did the same thing with Dirk until Dirk participated and stuck up for himself. You can always ask for help, but you’ve got to participate and Luka has done that for us in this journey. And so he’s going to have to do it (in Game 3). He’s going to have to defend.”
Call it tough love.
Just like he did with tough coaching as a teenage phenom with Real Madrid, Doncic responded.
Despite a decline in shooting efficiency from the first two games — 11 of 25 from the field and 2 of 7 from three — Doncic reached first-half triple-double pace after 12 minutes with seven points, seven rebounds and five assists to spark what would become the Mavericks’ biggest lead of the series.
He often nodded his head and shouted at courtside fans after big plays, but he kept his emotion in control while Phoenix drew two technical fouls. At a couple points, Doncic made money signs with his hands when he disagreed with referees’ calls.
He even recorded the first butt-rebound-and-assist sequence of his career, falling to his back after a first-quarter miss in traffic in the first quarter, catching the ricochet while sitting with his legs splayed out in the paint and tossing the ball to Dorian Finney-Smith on a cut to the basket.
After drawing his fourth foul with 5:14 left in the third quarter, Doncic headed to the bench earlier than his usual full-quarter rotation, shaking his head to the crowd’s delight.
The Mavericks led by 16 points (71-55) then.
They finished just minus-1 without him.
Then Doncic committed his fifth with 8:07 remaining and the Mavericks up 90-73.
He was heated that the coaching staff didn’t challenge his off-ball shoulder bump with Jae Crowder, but his teammates maintained the double-digit lead (95-84) by the time Doncic returned at the 4:39 mark.
“I didn’t think those were fouls,” Doncic said. “I mean, it’s playoffs. It’s a physical game. The fifth foul, whew. I don’t know the last time somebody called a fifth foul like that.”
Perhaps the extra rest helped conserve energy for a late steal and transition foul to keep the Suns from forcing clutch time, where they’ve thrived most this season.
In fact, the Mavericks showed renewed energy from the start of Game 3 — not only because former assistant and Orlando Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley, ex-Cowboy Dez Bryant and Masters champ Scottie Scheffler were among the 20,000 home fans that Doncic said provided “insane energy.”
After scoring just nine points on 3 of 12 shooting in Game 2, Brunson joined what Kidd called the scoring “party” to drop 10 points in the first quarter with the Mavericks running intentional isolation plays to help him regain his first-round rhythm.
Brunson’s 24 points through three quarters marked more than his 22 points in Games 1 and 2 combined. He shot 10 of 21 from the floor and added five assists and four rebounds.
For the first time in this series, Doncic didn’t outscore the other four Mavericks starters combined.
“It was awful. Ugh, it was real terrible,” Brunson said of his down start to this series after a breakout first round. “I found a way to bounce back tonight, but I just can’t be satisfied with this.”
Kidd tweaked the rotation to boost the defense, which hadn’t allowed 120-plus points in consecutive games this season before the Suns tallied 250 combined in Games 1 and 2, and it showed.
The Suns’ 94 points marked their lowest scoring output this season, and they shot 44.4% from the field, their first time sub-50% this postseason.
Frank Ntilikina played in Josh Green’s typical rotation pattern as a defensive specialist, part of an effort to wear down the Suns’ All-Star duo by the fourth quarter, and provided extra backcourt depth in Doncic’s spot voids.
Dallas even made adjustments to respond to the NBA’s moves Friday afternoon, when the league fined the organization $25,000 for standing “on or encroaching upon the playing court during the game.”
Their fix?
Reserves, led by Theo Pinson and Tim Hardaway Jr., and owner Mark Cuban appeared even more animated and theatrical on the bench and around the baseline.
They held their hands low to the ground after Doncic backed down and knocked over Bridges, for example, celebrated a Paul technical foul at mid-court and jawed with Booker throughout the fourth quarter.
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