Mavs' Luka Doncic Reacts to Celtics' Jaylen Brown's 'Really Nice' Highlight Crossover
DALLAS — Luka Doncic was on the wrong end of a highlight play when the Dallas Mavericks lost 119-110 to the Boston Celtics on Monday night.
Jaylen Brown attacked hard right, drew contact, then quickly countered with a behind-the-back move — resulting in Doncic falling to the floor. The play occurred during the second quarter, in part of a frequent strategy for the Celtics' offense to attack the Slovenian superstar off the dribble.
"I saw that video, I can't lie, that was really nice," Doncic said of Brown's move. "I was on the floor praying he didn't make it, but he made it. I tried to do my best, so that was a whole highlight."
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Mavs minority owner Mark Cuban called for the officials to replay for a possible push-off, but Doncic clarified it was just a nice move by Brown.
"Oh, no. No, no," Doncic said when asked about a possible pushoff. "That was a really nice move."
Brown was not trying to celebrate the play when asked about it, making clear that any given player can be on the other side of a sequence of that nature at any time.
“Just being aggressive. That’s all it was. It was basketball. In between the lines, a lot of stuff happens,' Brown said. "Credit to him for attempting to play some sort of defense. It was just me being aggressive. That was it. You can be on the other side of that at any point, so it’s just a good play.”
The play caused controversy since the Mavs jumbotron showed the replay of Doncic being dropped by Brown's dribble move. Tim Hardaway Jr. yelled at the operator during the game, saying, "Don't show that s**t."
Brown didn't notice the play being shown on the screen but said somebody should be fired if it indeed happened.
"I didn't notice that. That's crazy," Brown said. "Somebody needs to get fired if they did that."
Doncic finished with 33 points, 18 rebounds, and 13 assists in 40 minutes against the Celtics, but it wasn't enough to help lead the victory. After shooting 12-30 from the floor and 2-8 from the perimeter, he felt there were plenty of misses he normally would have made on a typical night.
The Mavs and Celtics will face off against each other on March 1 at TD Garden in Boston for the second and final meeting of the 2023-24 regular season.
