The Dallas Mavericks are in danger of being swept in the NBA Finals after losing Game 3 at home to the Cetlics, 106-99, on Wednesday night.
Dallas fell behind by 21 points in the fourth quarter and then had their furious comeback fall short thanks mostly to the fact that Luka Doncic fouled out with just over four minutes left in the game and couldn’t help his team in the final stretch.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst was asked after the game by Scott Van Pelt about what he thought of Doncic’s sixth foul and he did not hold back, blasting the guard for that play and crushing him for the way he’s acted and played all series long.
“I thought it was perfect that Luka fell on on to the ground there in an unacceptable position to put himself in with four minutes left and five fouls and then immediately looks at the bench and says you better bleeping challenge it, as if its the bench’s fault that he just made a terrible play,” Windhorst said.
His rant then got even more personal:
“I’m standing here in the Mavericks tunnel. Over there is the Celtics tunnel. That’s where the winners are. If Luka is ever going to be a winner coming out of this tunnel here he’s going to have to use what happened in this Finals as a learning experience. His defensive performance is unacceptable. He’s a hole on the court. The Celtics are attacking him. They are ahead in this series because they’ve attacked him defensively. And you’ve got a situation here where Luka is complaining about the officiating. They have begged him, they have talked with him, they have pleaded with him—he’s costing his team because of how he treats the officials. He’s a brilliant player, he does so many things well. They are here because of how he did. His performance in this game is unacceptable and the reason why the Mavericks are not going to win. He’s got to get over this. The fact that he came out after the game and blamed the officials showed me he’s nowhere close yet. So maybe over the summer someone will get to him because nobody with the Mavericks or anybody in his life has and that’s why the Mavericks are at this point. They’re never going to this tunnel with the trophy if he doesn’t improve” those aspects of his game.”
Here’s the video of that:
Brian Windhorst BLASTS Luka Dončić on ‘SportsCenter with SVP’ after Game 3 of the NBA Finals. 🏀🔥🔥🔥
(Dorks Burke also called out Luka’s defensive effort on the ESPN on ABC broadcast: https://t.co/iAs1rZSpdI ) pic.twitter.com/B3O2t9fESr
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 13, 2024
Game 4 is Friday in Dallas. We’ll see if Doncic and the Mavs can bounce back or if the Cetlics can close out their 18th championship in convincing fashion.
