DALLAS — The proof that Luka Dončić isn’t healthy, beyond his comments admitted as much after the Dallas Mavericks’ 110-93 win against the San Antonio Spurs, besides his even-more-languid-than-usual approach to games of late, even accounting for his nightly appearance on the team’s injury report, was in Saturday’s whispered performance.
Dallas won the game, a badly needed one. It snapped the team’s four-game losing streak, elevated them to 6-7, restored some desperately needed vibes. It was by no means due to Dončić, though. He had 16 points on 16 shots, chipped in six rebounds and assists apiece, turned it over four times. He tried defensively, cognizant of the discourse stemming from the last game’s last play. These weren’t the lowlights you were looking for, no sir. But he was, otherwise, average. Because Dallas was the only team that had played on Thursday, the game that created such consternation about his end-game lapse, his defensive effort led nearly every Friday podcast and newsletter with scorching remarks all around.
Dončić typically responds to a criticism whirlwind in a very specific manner: He reminds you that he’s capable of being the best player alive.
When Dončić scored 73 points last season, it came two days after he had a Phoenix Suns fan ejected for heckling him and four days after his head coach admitted the team — mostly meaning Dončić — had lost its heads to what they saw as poor officiating.
A day after, Dončić showed up to Inside The NBA’s Atlanta studio in a sweater-over-a-collared-shirt fit to admit, “I probably should not have done that.” Then, one day after that, he scored more points than all but three other players in league history.
It was nothing like Saturday’s showing. Could not even be compared to that. It was mild, quiet, nearly inaudible. To most players, a 16-6-6 line could be a career night. By Dončić’s standards, it’s a totally forgettable evening far beneath expectations.
“(I feel) a little bit less (than 100 percent),” Dončić said after Saturday’s game. “It’s a matter of time, just there’s not a lot of time to rest. But I’ll get better for sure. I promise.”
Dončić, his recurring knee bleed, his constant injury report appearances, and these comments, are enough to prove that he’s not himself. What precisely causes that is another question. Yes, it demands questions about his offseason commitment: Why has the player who had his most consecutive months without playing basketball in years now shown back up with ailments even more diminishing than what he suffered last season? Why was the lack of Olympics and national team requirements not enough to make him fully healthy for his actual job, the NBA season, to come?
But, if there’s any relief from the atypically quiet evening despite having his chance to shut up the naysayers, it’s this: Dončić himself knows it. And whatever his typical self is, the one he knows is as good as any player alive, he has yet to find it.
Hopefully, typically, it’s coming. Dončić can be that player again. And what has ailed Dallas thus far, even in a 6-7 season not nearly as bad as the record shows, is ready to be fixed when that player arrived.
Whenever there’s time to rest, at least. For which, for his sake, hopefully comes soon.
