Luka Doncic’s acrobatic shot wins the Mavericks the game

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The moment Luka Doncic released the ball, Dorian Finney-Smith realized the Brooklyn Nets were in serious trouble.

Because he had witnessed his former Dallas Mavericks teammate make so many absurd shots, whether he was joking about after practice or attempting to score with the game on the line, Finney-Smith was prepared for the worst. This was the latter, and Doncic said it was the hardest shot he had ever made in a game when he banked the lead three with 26.1 seconds left on Friday night.

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Doncic had to give up the ball twice during the possession with the score tied at 120 before Maxi Kleber on the right wing gave it back to him with three seconds left on the shot clock. Doncic had his back to the basket and Finney-Smith was all over him when Royce O’Neale and Finney-Smith doubled him. Doncic turned to face the sideline and delivered a high-arching hook that banked in for the game-winning run while maintaining a relief pitcher’s three-quarters arm angle.

Doncic said, “I saw there was like a couple of seconds left — gotta put it up.” Doncic made four three-pointers in the last 2:59 of the game, accounting for 14 of his 49 points. “Go ahead and make contact with the rim to give us a chance to grab the rebound. I have no idea how I survived.”

During the subsequent timeout that the Nets called, a number of Mavericks laughed and shook their heads due to the absurdity of the shot.

After spending the first 6.5 seasons of his career in Dallas, Finney-Smith was dealt to Brooklyn in February as part of the Kyrie Irving transaction. “I’ve seen it a million times,” he added. “He works on those shoots and plays around with it. He really cannot be faulted. We ought not to have allowed him to get the ball back, in my opinion. That was probably the best course of action. S—, he made that mug without even being able to see the rim.”

Finney-Smith asserted that Doncic did not call the bank on the game-winning basket, despite his earlier joking that he would not talk about basketball when they met for their scheduled postgame dinner.

“Oh no, he’s not calling for any glass,” Finney-Smith shook his head. “He better not say that he called glass, either.”

Doncic replied sarcastically, “I said it in Slovenian, because he wouldn’t understand.”

Jason Kidd, the Mavs coach, said that just before Doncic was able to take the game-winning shot, he was calling for a timeout. Luckily for the Mavs, Kidd’s timeout request was ignored by the officials, who didn’t consider Doncic to be “stuck” and wanted to draw up an out-of-bounds play.

Kidd remarked, “That’s a Luka special.” “He prefers late balls. He finds a way and he loves those kinds of circumstances. Luka’s problem is that he practices a lot of these wild shots. Sometimes they are seen by the naked eye, while other times they are captured on camera. He put us in a position to go there, but it was one of those nights.”

Doncic made 16 of 25 shots from the field and finished with zero turnovers, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists. Among those was a 9 of 14 3-point shooting performance, which included his game-winning three-pointer, which set a career record.

Mavs governor Mark Cuban remarked, “That was probably the most insane thing I’ve ever seen, and we needed it.”

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