Luka Doncic battled through injuries and a gauntlet of higher seeds only to fall short in the NBA Finals.
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BOSTON — The Mavericks bought some time by pushing the 2024 NBA Finals presented by YouTube TV to five games, but the clock that matters most starts now. It’s a countdown to Dallas’ next trip to the championship series.
For the record, Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and company experienced a Finals that spanned two cities, five games, 6,240 air miles and approximately 267 hours on the clock, start to finish. It was not exactly a blur but a more abrupt end than they had in mind given the “gentleman’s sweep” they endured against the Boston Celtics.
The Mavericks got enough of a taste to learn that the Finals, beyond historic and career-defining, really are only fun for one team.
The first trick is getting back.
Irving, Dallas’ veteran guard, didn’t realize how difficult that would be when he reached the Finals three times (2015-17) by the time he was 25.
“Yeah, I mean, it is a fleeting feeling, to be real with you,” Irving said after waiting seven years to return. “I looked at it as, oh, I’m going to be here every single year.”
Dallas’ Finals history is better than many teams with three appearances (2006, ’11, ’24) spread across 18 years. Starting with the Mavericks’ first trip, a 4-2 loss to Miami, only seven franchises have reached the title round more than once and 17 of the NBA’s 30 teams have never made it that far.
Phoenix (2021), Milwaukee (2021), Toronto (2019), Oklahoma City (2012) and Orlando (2009) all probably thought they’d be back by now but so far haven’t. Or in the Suns’, Thunder’s and Magic’s cases, lose-and-done.
The Celtics weren’t guaranteed to return after facing and losing to Golden State two years ago. The whole process was tortuous, starting a decade ago with 10 postseason tries that included four losses in the East finals and that six-game defeat by the Warriors.
Looked at that way, Boston was farther along in its championship life cycle compared to Dallas’ relative insta-contender.
“I think we learned more than anything from this series on what it takes to not only get back to this level but win at this level,” Irving said. “The Celtics are the perfect example for us this season because of how much they have had to deal with in the past few years.”
Said a downcast Doncic: “They’re a great team. They have been together for a long time, and they had to go through everything. So we just got to look at them, see how they play, maturity, and they have some great players. We can learn from that.”
Luka Doncic talks with the media following his team's Game 5 loss to the Celtics.
How do the Mavericks get back in 2025 or soon thereafter?
First, they need to build up. Over the past two weeks, the players said about how physical Boston played against them.
Second, they need to build out with knockdown shooting as their most obvious need. Josh Green, 23, had a nice Game 5 with 14 points in less than 23 minutes, hitting 4-of-6 3-pointers and 5-of-8 overall. But he averaged only 6.6 shots this season, tied for sixth on the squad.
Dallas ranked second and third in 3-pointers taken and made in the regular season, respectively, but was middle of the pack in accuracy at 36.9%. Nothing, one Mavericks insider said Monday, an “in-his-prime Peja Stojakovic” couldn’t fix.
What the Mavs are counting on most as summer heads toward fall is continuity and familiarity. Forward P.J. Washington and center Daniel Gafford helped transform the team after GM Nico Harrison got them from Charlotte and Washington, respectively, at the February trade deadline.
Washington filled basic needs at both ends of the floor, while Gafford teamed with rookie Dereck Lively II to give Dallas two vertically gifted rim runners to throw down lobs from Doncic and Irving and contest the paint. From the Feb. 8 deadline through the end of the season, Dallas improved from 18th in defensive rating to 7th and from 15th to 5th in net rating.
Lively’s emergence generated real excitement. The 20-year-old rookie had his minutes leashed for most of the season as he navigated the on-court workload and off-court challenges (his mother died in April after a long battle with cancer). By Games 3 and 4 of the Finals, Lively was posting double-doubles and tinkering with a 3-point shot.
The team’s foundation remains its star backcourt. Doncic ($40 million) and Irving ($43 million) account for nearly half of the $173 million Dallas has committed to next season’s payroll. Its ability to acquire outside help will be limited, so it’s good that only one player in Jason Kidd’s Finals rotation — forward Derrick Jones Jr. — is unsigned. And he’s a 27-year-old unrestricted free agent whose game appears to have found a home in his fifth NBA stop.
Doncic and Irving scored 1,122 points in this playoff run, the most by two teammates in an NBA postseason. The challenge, as it was in this series, is finding a reliable third and even fourth scorer.
The Finals were a rite of passage for Doncic, an ordeal at times (Game 3) followed by a taste of redemption (Game 4). He was banged up from the Mavs’ playoff climb through higher seeds — the Clippers, the Thunder, the Timberwolves and, finally, the champion Celtics — but he kept grinding.
At 25, Doncic is a perennial MVP candidate in search of a ring. Just as his team needs to develop from within, so does Doncic — as a defender, in coping with officials and getting in better physical shape.
“We all would like to be healthy, but there’s going to be bumps and bruises along the way,” Kidd said. “Now it’s just being consistent. When you have one of the best players in the world, you should be always fighting for a championship.”
Irving has been an All-Star just once since 2021 but at 32, he averaged 25.6 points and shot 41% from 3-point range while co-existing alongside Doncic at a level that astounded some former critics. Doncic gives him space when he’s hot, and there still is no more creative finisher and closer in the league.
Irving sees himself front and center as a veteran to shepherd along Dallas’ growth. They’ll have another training camp together and, besides new expectations, a fresh swagger from getting so far, so quickly.
“These young guys are very hungry,” Irving said. “They want a championship. I want a championship. So our feelings are very mutual. But I’ve always reminded them that this is a process. Failure is going to be part of this, too.”
Dallas can consider that box checked.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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