Luka Doncic was visibly upset in the locker room following the Mavericks’ 112-109 loss to the Pacers Sunday night, a game where Doncic was fouled hard multiple times. He was seen complaining to referees throughout the game after taking multiple blows to the face.
“They hit me in the face, and that should be a foul,” Doncic said. “They should look at it. I think the rule is when you get hit in the face, they’ve got to look if it’s flagrant or no, right? Like I said, I was hit in the face three times. Two of them was not a foul.”
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Doncic finished with 36 points, ten rebounds and eight assists in the loss and took a knee in the jaw from Pacers’ guard Edmund Sumner after a pump fake outside the three point line in the second quarter, a play that should have been reviewed. In the fourth quarter, Victor Oladipo appeared to hit Doncic in the mouth unintentionally causing his mouth to bleed as he laid on the court in dismay. As he he was hit, Doncic passed the ball to Courtney Lee who failed to convert a three-pointer. Oladipo then controlled the possession for the Pacers and was subsequently sent to the free line as the Mavericks were a man down and needed to foul to stop the Pacers from getting an easy basket. Oladipo’s two free throws gave the Pacers a three-point lead with 13 seconds remaining and Doncic could not convert two three point attempts in the final seconds to tie the game.
Doncic was seen screaming at referee Tyler Ford following the no-call. “He can’t f—ing hit me in the mouth!” Doncic yelled at Ford.
In the locker room aftewards, Doncic later added, “They didn’t care. It was clear. Everybody saw on the Jumbotron.” Mavericks’ guard Tim Hardaway stepped in between Ford and Doncic to keep the situation under control.
“We’re lucky he didn’t get a tech,” said Hardaway, who finished with 30 points. “I just tried my best to stay in between him and the ref. Thankfully, he walked away, and we moved on.” The 21-year-old was seen staring down officials as he walked to the locker room.
Yes, there were missed calls in the game, but a big reason the Mavericks lost was their ineffectiveness in the fourth quarter. They failed to score a basket in the final 4 minutes and forty seconds and their only point was a free throw from Doncic. The team is 39-26, a big improvement from last seaason, but they currently rank 28th in the league in clutch situations, according to ESPN.
“We had some open shots,” Doncic told ESPN. “We just didn’t make them. That’s it. I think it was open shots, maybe some extra passes, but we didn’t make them.”
