Seeing Luka Doncic complaining to the referees is crazy banal. It's possible that his frustration last night against the Kings isn't just related to the officials. At the start of the second quarter, the Slovenian received a technical foul, believing he had been the victim of a foul. Keegan Murray.
The Kings player had just physically blocked him under the circle after an offensive rebound. An action all the more striking as he had just done the same, with even more authority, only a few seconds earlier on a penetration from the Mavs leader.
This gives the beginning of an overview of his evening spent against the winger opposite, the day after his historic outing with 73 points. Responsible for defending him, Keegan Murray had received a simple instruction from teammate De'Aaron Fox : “ Don't let him score 70 points tonight! »
Give up something
The young winger did much better than that against the Slovenian who remained on a series of seven consecutive games with 31 points or more. That's almost a full month without going below this bar. “ It's exciting to be able to take on this challenge and to have this objective of keeping it below 70 points and we achieved it well. », he judges.
Against several players, Luka Doncic had a lot of difficulty getting rid of his pressure when penetrating, the two players displaying similar build. He seemed more comfortable after the switches allowing him to attack Kevin Huerter.
“ He is clearly a difficult player to defend. This is the focal point of their attack, especially in the absence of Ky (Kyrie Irving). Compared to his way of scoring, I think we did a good job. We have to try to prevent him from going to the free throw line, and obviously he will continue to create for others. We can't stop him for both his scoring and his creation. You have to give up something “, recalls De’Aaron Fox.
End of streak at 30 points or more
More limited in his offensive initiatives, and therefore more clumsy, particularly at 3-points where Keegan Murray made a series of good challenges, he had to pass the ball more often. Result: a new super strong triple-double: 28 points, 17 assists and 10 rebounds. But a very, very average level of skill: 9/26 including 1/9 by far. This is only his 5th match of the year below 35% success.
“ He continues to be given the toughest task game after game, and I thought he did a good job trying to make Luka work to score points tonight. Luka is a hell of a player – 17 assists and a triple-double – but Keegan tried hard to make him work, so he had a hell of a game », can greet Mike Brown, who had already had positive words towards him for his defense of Stephen Curry earlier in the week.
Author of 15 points (5/13 on shots) in 40 minutes, Keegan Murray also believes that there is “ similarities (between Doncic and Curry). They're both going to get a lot of screens. That's a lot of screens near the baseline for Steph, Luka doesn't have as many, it's more pick and rolls, but he uses his physicality very well. » He had a little more difficulty using it last night.
| Keegan Murray | Percentage | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Party | Int | Bp | Ct | Pts |
| 2022-23 | BAG | 80 | 30 | 45.3 | 41.1 | 76.5 | 1.1 | 3.5 | 4.6 | 1.2 | 2.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 12.2 |
| 2023-24 | BAG | 39 | 33 | 46.7 | 36.7 | 79.7 | 1.4 | 4.2 | 5.6 | 1.6 | 2.6 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 16.0 |
| Total | 119 | 31 | 45.8 | 39.6 | 78.0 | 1.2 | 3.7 | 4.9 | 1.3 | 2.2 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 13.5 | |
How to read the stats? MJ = matches played; Min = Minutes; Shots = Successful shots / Attempted shots; 3pts = 3-points / 3-points attempted; LF = free throws made / free throws attempted; Off = offensive rebound; Def=defensive rebound; Tot = Total rebounds; Pd = assists; Fte: Personal fouls; Int = Intercepts; Bp = Lost balls; Ct: Against; Pts = Points.
