Luka Doncic leads Dallas Mavericks to Conference Finals: “You can’t wipe that smile off my face”

Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks advanced to the Conference Finals after a historic Game 7 vs. the Phoenix Suns. The Slovenian was then enthusiastic about the performance of his team.

The Mavs dominated from the start against the best team of the regular season and ended up winning 123:90 in a foreign arena. Doncic himself put up 35 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists in just 30 minutes, he controlled the game from the start and was overjoyed afterwards.

“You can’t wipe this smile off my face,” said the 23-year-old. “I’m just really happy. Honestly, I think we deserve it. We’ve played hard all series. Maybe we didn’t look like ourselves in some games, but we made a statement here in Game 7. We everyone believed in it.”

Dallas had trailed 0-2 in the series and had not won a playoff series prior to this postseason since 2011. Nevertheless, the Mavericks fought their way into this duel and increasingly took control on the defensive against Phoenix. This was also key in Game 7, when the Suns had just 27 points in the first half.

Mavericks: Extra payday for Spencer Dinwiddie

Doncic also had this yield on the credit side at the break. “He’s the kind of player who wants to land the knockout punch,” Spencer Dinwiddie, who scored 30 points himself, said of Doncic. “For that he has my respect. He’s never afraid of the moment.”

This postseason has already paid off for Dinwiddie. Like Marc Stein (Substack) reported that getting into the conference finals triggered a clause in his contract that guaranteed him a bonus of $571,427.

“It’s not about me. It was the whole team today,” Doncic said again. “Today was just incredible. I’ve never seen a performance like that in a Game 7. I can’t remember anyone delivering like that in an away game so I’m really proud of our performance today.”