At the top of the NBA, everything is governed by a narrow margin of maneuver. Small details acquire capital importance and their value is magnified, but it is only appreciated when it is too late, that is, at the end of the matches. The Dallas Mavericks of Luka Doncic have relearned this maxim the hard way in a bitter defeat at the hands of Milwaukee Bucks by 106-105, fruit of their own mistakes.
Unforced errors in the only throw that can be done in this sport always under the same circumstances and conditions: the free throws.
The Mavs had at their fingertips a victory of great weight and importance at their particular moment in the Western Conference. With 10 seconds to finish and +1 Dorian Finney-Smith had two shots on the scoreboard to seal the match or, at least, ensure overtime. The forward missed both, giving possession to the Bucks, who took the opportunity to score after timeout.
Brook Lopez’s game-winner ????#FearTheDeer https://t.co/V83QUvkN8j pic.twitter.com/GI5PCUeJFd
— NBA (@NBA) December 10, 2022
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But those two errors were not isolated. in the last five minutes into the fourth quarter they missed 7 of their 11 attempts and throughout the game they accumulated a series of 10 of 24 from the penalty line, that is, 41.7%. In a duel in which Giannis Antetokounmpo was ejected for 6 personalwhere Khris Middleton pitched at 35.3%, Dallas squandered a win with everything going for it. In contrast, the Bucks were 19 of 23 from the free throw (82.6%).
In the special case of Doncicthe Slovenian returned to his bad habits, with 4 of 10 cumulative that frustrated him at the end of the crash. A duel where he was sensational with 33 points, 6 rebounds and 11 assists, but it wasn’t enough.
The problem for Jason Kidd’s is that this is not new. In general terms Dallas is the third worst team in the NBA in percentage of success in the free throw with 73%percentage that drops to 68.2% in the clutch, also being the third below. Also, among stars with more than 35 minutes on average, Doncic is the second worst with 72.4% accuracy, only ahead of LeBron James (69.8%).
This loss ends a 3-game winning streak and drops the Mavs to 13-12, tied with the Wolves for 7th place in the West.
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