Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic expressed his displeasure that coach Carl Carlisle did not use the team’s last lap time during a critical possession in the last minute of a 112-109 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. do not have.
The possession, which occurred when the Mavs were two points behind, ended with Kristaps Porzingis leaving a controversial three-pointer with 10.4 seconds left. After the Mavs made a mistake seconds later, Doncic angrily gestures to the Dallas bench and repeatedly forms a T with his hands to indicate that it should be a timeout.
In the previous possession, Doncic opened a 3 for Trey Burke by issuing a double. Burke missed, but center Willie Cauley-Stein grabbed the offensive rebound by 17.7 seconds. Doncic did not touch the ball for the rest of the ball as Cauley-Stein was handed over to Burke, who drove the baseline under the basket and passed on to the right wing to Porzingis.
“It’s Coach’s decision, but if we had the chance, everything would be fine,” said Doncic, who had 29 points, 9 rebounds and 13 assists in the loss, making up 61 of the Mavs’ 81 points. when he was on. the floor. “… But I do not know. It’s Coach’s decision to call a timeout or no, so I think that’s fine.”
Doncic said he has not yet discussed the situation with Carlisle and declined to say whether he intends to have the conversation with his coach.
“If we talk, we’re going to talk,” Doncic said. “It’s not going to be in the media. It’s between us.”
Carlisle said he “will not go into it in public” when asked about the situation with Doncic. Carlisle did not regret his decision not to call a time-out on possession, noting how difficult it is to score against the Bucks’ defense if Milwaukee has a chance to recover.
“Look, we got two good shots and we kept a timeout,” Carlisle said. “As a coach, that’s all you can hope for in that situation.”
The missed 3, which did not catch iron and made it to the other side of the edge of the back plate, gave Porzingis a poor shooting performance in his second game of the season after recovering from his off-season injury to his right knee. He finished in 29 minutes with 15 points on 6-of-19 shooting (2-out-7 of 3-point series).
“There are things I could have done much better, and that could have changed a lot in this game,” said Porzingis, who felt he was rushing his last shot. “I want to take a lot of responsibility for this one.”
Porzingis said he should be ‘calmer’ there, acknowledging that he was sometimes too aggressive while trying to find his rhythm.
“There has to be a balance,” Porzingis said. “You want to be aggressive, but you want to be aggressive in situations and positions you are comfortable with. You do not always want to look for it.”
Carlisle expressed confidence that Porzingis would find the balance as he gets his feet wet after missing the first nine games of the season.
“Put yourself in his shoes,” Carlisle said. “The man really wants to help the team. If he had not been aggressive, I would have been much more worried. ‘