NBA: Luka Doncic says goodbye in a big way | NBA 2019

The Dallas Mavericks lost to the Clippers (97-111) and were eliminated in the first round. Luka Doncic closed his first playoffs with 38 points

• Playoffs.
  
  The repeat assault on Doncic that had Marcus Morris expelled

• Luka Doncic.
  
  For the story: half lame, 43 points and triple over the horn to beat the Los Angeles Clippers

When everything seemed lost Luka Doncic He reached into his top hat and pulled out one last magic trick. The Slovenian anot 16 points in the third quarter, 9 in the last minute and a half, to drag his team back into a game where they had gone 20 down. A triple with step back and two baskets with additional ante Paul George y Kawhi Leonard, the two stars of the Clippers. He came to put the Mavericks only six, but not even that fit of genius could close the gap that separates Dallas of a candidate for everything like the Clippers. Leonard, with that effectiveness that feels like a hammer, closed the tie (97-111).

The second season of Luka Doncic ends in the NBA, the year he went from brilliant rookie to league superlite. 38 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists. By numbers, your first participation in playoffs he has 31 points, 9.8 rebounds and 8.6 assists. In his first series of playoffs, He has generated 59.5 points per game in 34.6 minutes, a fact that speaks at the same time of his enormous influence on the game and the effectiveness he has shown.

By records, with the scoring record of a debutant in playoffs (42), or for being the second player in history (after Wilt Chamberlain) to score 40 points in two of his first four games. By images, by that triple on the horn of the fourth game to seal a memorable performance. For sensations, like the first chapter of something great. But the Mavs project, like him in the NBA, is still taking its first steps and the Clippers are one of the favorites in the ring.

They stood up, which is not shortly after running out Kristaps Porzingis, injured knee good. Partly thanks to Marcus Morris, than he won the expulsion with a flagrant foul on Doncic. If there were already doubts about the intentionality of his stomp on the bad ankle of the previous game, here he hit him in the neck. “They go twice in a row where he does something like that. I really hoped that the previous game was not on purpose, but seeing the lack of this game … You know what I think,” Doncic said.

The expulsion dislodged the Clippers for a while and left the command to Dallas. They were rebuilt in the second quarter at the hands of Leonard and George, but especially their defense. Californians boast an ultra-versatile range of eaves, but have also found in Ivica Zubac a more valuable piece than you might think. With it, the dots in the paint are more expensive.

The gap grew to 20 points in the third quarter, until that last outburst from Doncic. The Slovenian, in full trance, cut the lead to just six points, but was defeated in a portentous duel with Kawhi Leonard. To a certain extent, the Californian has the opposite character to Doncic: he could kill you with the same face with which he waits his turn at the supermarket. With no more expressiveness than what he would spend to seal your parking ticket, he stripped the defense with a deck of tickets and medium-distance shots to sentence the tie.

Reggie Jackson, with three triples in the final stretch, he confirmed the outcome: this is where Doncic’s second season has come.