Luka Dončić, basketball’s most effective derriere, strikes back in the NBA finals

The Mavericks star, and particularly his defense, had been much maligned coming into Friday night’s Game 4. He quickly set the record straight

Luka Doncic #77 of the Dallas Mavericks attempts a layup past Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics in the fourth quarter. Pic: Peter Casey - Pool/Getty Images

When Luka Dončić dropped 73 points on the Atlanta Hawks in January – the fourth highest individual points tally in NBA history – Dallas head coach Jason Kidd was asked whether his star player’s prodigious scoring feats threatened to disrupt the Mavericks’ gameplan. “He is the gameplan,” Kidd replied.

For much of these finals that gameplan, like the man it was centered on, seemed decidedly iffy. The Mavericks looked unbalanced, dangerously overreliant on their star guard pairing, and Dončić himself – nursing injuries to both knee and chest – was in the middle of a historic series stinker in defense, footage of him lazily swatting at the ball as the Celtics repeatedly blew by him on offense threatened to become the visual summary of the entire finals.