Luka Doncic Speaks on Mavs' NBA Title Outlook, Calls for Greater Physicality
DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks hold a 25-21 record entering Monday's matchup against the Orlando Magic, ranking eight in the Western Conference standings. Despite another incredible season from Luka Doncic, the team has yet to hit a stride where they've shown an extended potential to be among the NBA's best teams.
For a player of Doncic's caliber, contending for a championship matters most. After the Mavs' recent loss against the Boston Celtics, Doncic spoke to Slovenian journalist Andrej Miljkovic of Ekipa24 about a wide range of topics, including his thoughts on the Mavs' outlook after the midpoint of the season.
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For Slovenian fans who support Doncic's Mavs but want to see him win a championship, what does the superstar see the team lacking to reach the level necessary to win it all?
Doncic first pointed out that injuries should not be overlooked. Before more information was available about Kyrie Irving spraining his thumb, Doncic highlighted how the team was getting healthy and overcome a major problem of various important players being sidelined, including the team's "Big 3," which he mentioned consisting of him, Irving, and Dereck Lively II.
"I'm not saying people aren't taking into account all of our injury problems this season, but maybe not enough of them,” Doncic told Ekipa24 in an answer translated from Slovenian to English. "It was a serious injury crisis; there was always someone missing, and there was always someone important missing. In my opinion, we are even closer to being in perfect shape and at least approximately healthy now. Especially our 'Big 3,' as we would say here — we have played very little together in matches, even less in training. We still have to get used to it, even though we are already in the second half of the regular season."
The Mavs have struggled to stay healthy since Doncic's positive comment, with Irving set to miss his fourth consecutive game due to a right thumb sprain after being ruled out for Monday's game. Other players, including Dante Exum, Derrick Jones Jr., and Dwight Powell, are questionable.
Regarding what the Mavs lack, Doncic highlighted the need for more physicality from the team, suggesting that opponents are often significantly more physical against them when it should be the opposite.
"As for what we lack and what we should do, it is clear that we should play much more physically," Doncic said. "Practically everyone is much more physical against us than we are against them. We need to change that."
Doncic's call for the Mavs to be a more physical team has been a theme during recent losses in post-game press conferences. He recently emphasized the importance of being physical for a full 48 minutes, and when it's achieved, Dallas is hard to defeat.
“We just got to be more physical – that’s it. I think when we play physical 48 minutes, it’s hard to beat us," Doncic said after the loss against the Phoenix Suns. "We got to play physically without fouling.”
Right now, the Mavs remain one of the smallest teams in the NBA, often playing bigs as the only players being 6-foot-8 or taller. Doncic tends to be the tallest perimeter player Dallas deploys in many lineup combinations. It's difficult to be the aggressor when disadvantaged in size, and the Mavs will need to address this issue with the trade deadline just 10 days away.
