NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAVERICKS VS. WARRIORS

May 20, 2022

Luka Doncic

Dallas Mavericks

Game 2: Postgame

Golden State - 126, Dallas - 117

Q. Luka, we heard that you were sick heading into this game. Obviously, the shoulder is still in pain. Can you take us through all that you have gone through the past two days heading into this game?

LUKA DONCIC: It was more last night I was a little bit sick. Nothing serious. The shoulder we got treatment on, so it's fine. It's all good.

Q. Did you feel any sort of effects, like energy-wise or pain-wise in the game?

LUKA DONCIC: No, I don't think so. I mean, the pain for the shoulder is a little bit there, but other than that, after the first quarter, I was really tired. After that, I was good.

Q. From your perspective, what went wrong in the third quarter?

LUKA DONCIC: Bad defense, that's it. We got to concentrate on our defense in games. Our defense got to improve a lot.

Q. J. Kidd talked about he felt you guys relied on the three too much in the third quarter when it wasn't going for you. When you shoot 47 percent, you hit 21, obviously, that's good. What's the balance between wanting to attack and taking looks that are there and that are good looks?

LUKA DONCIC: I think the same. I think we relied too much on the three. We weren't attacking the paint that much. But we got to attack the paint more, like they did. They attacked the paint a lot. They have two of the best shooters in the world, and they still attack the paint.

So I think we've got to rely less on the three. Obviously, it's a good percentage, but I think we've got to rely more on getting to the paint and then kickouts.

Q. Luka, it looked more in the first half you were -- Wiggins was your primary matchup, and you were going after him, getting shots on him a lot. Looked like in the third quarter it was Looney more often, or maybe later in the game. Did I see that right, and is that something you kind of adjusted to what they were doing?

LUKA DONCIC: I don't know what you mean.

Q. It looked like you were looking for switches against Looney in the third quarter a lot more than earlier in the game.

LUKA DONCIC: Yeah, when they switch, the low man is early there. So I think we've got to -- when I attack the paint, usually there's two on me or three. So I've got to do a better job kicking it out. For them, we've got to be aggressive. I think those things, we've got to improve in the next game.

Q. Luka, you guys have been down 0-2 now in back-to-back series, but to be up 19 and allow them to come back the way they did, is this the most substantial bit of adversity you guys have faced in these playoffs, and how do you bounce back now?

LUKA DONCIC: Can you normal English for me? I don't understand those two words.

Q. Fair enough. Is this the toughest situation you've faced in the playoffs, and how do you bounce back?

LUKA DONCIC: Yeah, man, it's the worst. Like I said, they're a championship team. We've got to adjust our defense. It's very hard to stop them. But it's a tough situation. We were up 20 or 19, so it's a tough situation. We can't look back. What happened happened, so we've got to move on.

Q. This is the second time you guys have been outrebounded. The conventional wisdom is the Warriors were going to have a hard time rebounding because they aren't that big. What can you guys do to make it a more even rebounding stat?

LUKA DONCIC: We've just got to do a better job closing out and rebounding. That's it. We've got to be more physical, and we've got to close out better and rebound the ball.

Q. Luka, Jason's talked a bunch this season about how he likes to use timeouts or doesn't like to use timeouts to stop runs and to let you guys sort through things on the court yourselves. Do you like that in the playoffs, and how do you think that strategy differs in the regular season in terms of trying to get everything collected and get everybody on the same page?

LUKA DONCIC: That's good, you know. He's the coach. He's the boss. Whatever he say is good. Sometimes he's going to take a timeout, sometimes no. I think obviously, when you play away, I think he's going to take more timeouts than at home. At home it's a little bit easier because of the crowd.

But he's the boss. So we listen to him.

Q. I'm sure you're used to it by now, but what did you think of Jalen?

LUKA DONCIC: Great, great. He played great. A lot of guys played great. I think offensively we were fine. It's just the defensive end we've got to improve a lot.