A former teammate has come rushing to the defense of Luka Doncic after the Dallas Mavericks superstar has drawn the ire of critics for them being on the brink of being swept out of the 2024 NBA Finals by the Boston Celtics.
The Luka slander is flat out BULLSHIT right now. Everyone was praising this man before the finals started and now he needs to be better. His defense has been the SAME all damn playoffs and they are IN THE FINALS‼️ This man and Kyrie have took this team to the FINALS‼️
— Theo pinson (@tpinsonn) June 14, 2024
The REAL question is where can he get some help scoring other than Kyrie‼️ Because Boston is a better Basketball TEAM that’s why they are losing and potentially going to get swept‼️ Damn the defense and all that shit in this league it’s about putting the ball in the BASKET‼️
— Theo pinson (@tpinsonn) June 14, 2024
The switch up from people of TV talking about Luka is absolutely insane‼️ The man also is clearly hurt taking a damn shot just to be on the court and put his body on the line for his team‼️ If you don’t score guess what you lose they haven’t broke 100 points in 3 games‼️
— Theo pinson (@tpinsonn) June 14, 2024
Let’s sit back and actually watch the damn game‼️ It’s not damn rocket science to see Boston is the better team and that’s okay. But calling this man out shape and blaming him is flat out BS‼️ Becasue THEY AREN’T SNIFFING THE FINALS WITHOUT HIM‼️
— Theo pinson (@tpinsonn) June 14, 2024
Theo Pinson, who played for the Mavericks during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, took to social media to support Doncic with the Mavericks having lost three straight games to the Celtics and Game 4 set for Friday night.
After leading the Mavericks through the first three rounds of the 2024 NBA Playoffs with some exceptional performances, Doncic is falling a bit short of those standards against the Celtics. However, Pinson maintains that the All-Star is not getting enough help from his teammates and also is clearly playing with an injury.
Some current teammates reportedly in the past have pleaded with Doncic to stop whining to the refs, give more effort on defense and be in better shape. Whether such changes can now come in time to help the Mavericks may be unlikely as no NBA team has ever come back to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games.
Doncic’s petulant on-court demeanor was on full display in Dallas’ Game 3 loss on Wednesday. No only did he foul out of the crucial contest, he went on to criticize the officials during his postgame comments to the media.
Luka Doncic after Game 3:
“I don't want to say nothing, but six fouls in the NBA Finals . . . like this? Come on, man. Be better than that."
(via @townbrad) pic.twitter.com/SOvuGwxgw7
— Ahn Fire Digital (@AhnFireDigital) June 13, 2024
This is all after the 25-year-old was particularly impressive in the 2024 Western Conference Finals victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He averaged 32.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game in the five-game victory that put Dallas back in the NBA Finals for the first time since it won the title in 2011.
However, through the first three games against the Celtics, he is averaging just 29.7 points per game, still an impressive number but not quite what he had done in the previous round. With the Mavericks unable to score at least 100 points in any of these games, any drop in his offensive production has proven to be significant.
Perhaps Doncic and the Mavericks can start to turn things around with a Game 4 win and draw some praise for their top player rather than the more recent criticism.
