Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic seems primed to make his postseason debut in Saturday afternoon’s Game 4 vs. the Utah Jazz.
When asked at Friday morning’s shootaround for the “daily Luka update,” coach Jason Kidd quipped, “He did great in film session!” When asked if he was optimistic about Doncic’s Game 4 availability, Kidd replied, “Optimistic? That’s a good word. When you look at what he’s done at this point, he’s going in the right direction.”
Doncic has missed the first three games of the series after suffering a left calf strain in the Mavs’ regular-season finale on April 10.
Doncic also addressed the media Friday, saying he would go through practice and “see how it feels. After practice, we’ll know better.”
Asked if he could have played in Game 3 on Thursday night, he replied, “I feel like I could play every game, but the risk was too much.”
Both Kidd and Doncic said the plan was to have Doncic go through 5-on-5 work Friday and see how he feels afterward. Kidd said the forward has experienced “no setbacks” in his recovery.
As good as Dallas has been without Doncic (Jalen Brunson has totaled 73 points against just one turnover the past two games), he remains a big weapon against Utah.
In the three games he played against the Jazz in the regular season (he missed their Christmas night matchup), Doncic averaged 30 points, 11 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game.
Practicing patience
When asked if the results of the series thus far have impacted the decision-making on whether Doncic plays, Kidd said, “No. No. Where we are today in the series does not have any effect on if he plays or if he doesn’t play.”
Doncic agreed, saying that wins and losses have not been a factor — solely the way that he has felt.
Still, he acknowledged feeling antsy and ready to go, and conceded that being on the bench to watch the games unfold without him has been difficult.
“It’s been tough,” Doncic admitted. “… Watching from the bench, I’m too nervous.”
Trash-talking is in fine form
Doncic has never been shy about giving his mouth a workout, and he demonstrated Friday that even if his body remains at less than 100%, his tongue is in fine form, especially when it comes to his teammates.
Asked about who he’s been going up against in practice, he said he enjoys matchups with 7-foot-3 big man Boban Marjanovic.
“I like to go against Bobi, so I can talk,” said Doncic. “He said he didn’t want to block me one time ’cause I was getting back. I said, ‘You couldn’t block me! Stop making excuses.’”
Later, asked about Spencer Dinwiddie’s high-flying dunk over Rudy Gobert in Game 3, Doncic, added, “I think Rudy helped him a little bit. He thought he could save all his buddies. I’ve never seen [Dinwiddie] dunk like that!”
Dinwiddie would add that he and Doncic exchanged some trash talk of their own about who now has a better dunk: “Luka was talking about his dunk in Denver before I got here, but I told him he didn’t dunk on any shot-blocker, so it didn’t count the same.”
Follow @tribjazz