Mychal Thompson — who won two titles during his time playing for the storied Los Angeles Lakers franchise — implored Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic to avoid getting in foul trouble after the Slovenian fouled out in Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.
“I don’t want to have to face Cedric Maxwell if Boston gets to 18 before us,” Thompson told ESPN. “It will be insufferable for me to sit through that for three hours dealing with his ‘I told you so’s.’ I’m going to have to call in sick for the two Boston games next year if they hold on and win this series.
“So, come on Luka, stop fouling out.”
Doncic fouled out for just the third time of his NBA career on Wednesday, and his sixth foul came with just over four minutes remaining in the contest.
This was Luka Doncic's sixth foul. Good or bad call? 🤔
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) June 13, 2024
The Mavericks were down by just three points at the time of Doncic’s ejection but proceeded to get outscored by four points the rest of the way and lost by a score of 106-99.
Despite the fact that the Mavericks were at home for Game 3, the team’s role players didn’t necessarily step up. Only two players outside of Doncic and Kyrie Irving — P.J. Washington and Dereck Lively II — scored 10 or more points for Dallas, and Tim Hardaway Jr. — who logged just eight minutes of playing time in the first two games of the championship series — missed all five of his shots from the floor.
Dallas got a lot of offensive production from Doncic’s star teammate in Irving though, as he scored a game-high 35 points on 13-of-28 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from 3-point range against his former team.
Doncic and the Mavericks’ hopes of winning the team its second title in franchise history are on life support after the squad lost Game 3. Dallas would have to make history in order to come back and win this series, as no team in NBA playoff history has won four straight games after falling down 0-3.
Doncic’s next chance to extend the series and bring it back to Boston for a Game 5 will come on Friday, when the Mavericks host the Celtics for Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
If the Mavericks are unable to accomplish the improbable and become the 2024 NBA champions, hopefully Doncic will learn from his defensive woes against Boston and use those tribulations as motivation to become a better player on that end moving forward.
