DALLAS — When the fourth quarter started, Mavericks star Luka Dončić had just two fouls and his team trailed the Celtics by 15 points.
Fast forward nearly eight game minutes, and an entirely different set of circumstances developed. Dallas was back in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, trailing Boston by a mere three points. And Dončić was gone for good, having fouled out.
That’s four whistles against arguably the league’s best player, in a finals game, in the fourth quarter. It’s just the third time Dončić has fouled out of a game — regular or postseason.
“(It’s) never happened to me, not that I remember,” said Dončić, who was disqualified from an eventual 106-99 loss with 27 points. He was speaking about being called for four fouls in eight minutes.
“We couldn’t play physical,” Dončić added. “I don’t want to say nothing. You know, six fouls in the NBA Finals, basically I’m like this (motions with palms out). C’mon, man. Better than that.”
Dallas, which had fallen behind by 21 in the fourth, was on a 20-2 run when Dončić was called for his sixth and final foul, at 4:12 of the fourth. He was guarding Jaylen Brown and there was contact, though it looked like Dončić stayed in front of Brown. Dallas challenged the call, and head referee Marc Davis said Dončić had not established position when Brown ran into him.
“I don’t think it was a foul; I don’t think any of us did,” Dereck Lively II said.
Brown also drew Dončić’s fifth foul with some questionable contact between the two players. Dallas coach Jason Kidd was asked afterwards why he didn’t challenge Dončić’s fifth foul, and he said “maybe we should have challenged all of them.”
“We could have probably done a little bit something different on his fifth foul just to give us a little bit more of a grace period to set our defense and get him on a matchup,” Kyrie Irving said. “But hindsight is 20/20. We have to wash our hands of this and get ready for Game 4.”
The Mavs, who now trail the Celtics 3-0, led Game 3 by 13 points early. Dončić and Irving, who finished with 35 points, were rolling, and the Mavs still led by 1 at halftime, after Boston had joined the party.
Dončić struggled to shoot, making just 11 of 27 shots. He was 1-of-7 on 3s with 6 rebounds and 6 assists, and is playing with a bruised chest that has required injections for pain. Dončić appeared to be laboring at numerous times during Game 3 — a likely factor in at least some of the fouls he drew.
“He’s definitely got a bull’s eye on his chest,” Kidd said. “He’s got to be able to guard and understand that we’re there to protect him and help him if he does get beat.
“Again, he’s carrying a load offensively,” Kidd continued. “They are putting him in every pick-and-roll and iso. He’s got to be able to play the game where he can rest on offense and let others carry the load.”
“I think we should have just kept playing with the same energy, keep the same people in. We were rolling,” Dončić said. “But then they came back. At some point we were down 21, too, in the fourth quarter and we came back. We’re still going to believe until the end.”
Required reading
(Photo: Tim Heitman / Getty Images)