Dallas Mavericks superstar guard Luka Doncic and Detroit Pistons assistant coach Jerome Allen were chirping back and forth during Monday’s game, but Doncic’s 53 points ensured that he got the final word and the Mavericks got the win.
It marked Doncic’s fourth 50-point game of the season, but all the chatter was about the constant back-and-forth with Allen.
“I mean, since the first quarter, he was chirping,” Doncic said, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “You know I’ll chirp back. From the first quarter, he was chirping. I don’t want to say the words. I have no problem with that. It’s basketball. It gets me going for sure.”
The Pistons downplayed the severity of the trash talk.
“It’s a bunch of nothing, a bunch of nothing,” Pistons head coach Dwane Casey said. “We’ve seen worse. Remember I coached Gary Payton and Kevin Garnett, so that tonight was zero as far as chirping. I liked it. I thought it really got us going, and that’s the way it should be with competitive guys. Doncic is competitive as heck. I love the way he plays, the way he carries himself, and I love the way our guys responded. They weren’t intimidated. So it’s all good. It was clean, nothing dirty about it.
“It’s good if that’s what he needs to get himself going and tell himself. But he doesn’t need any help. He’s a great player without all the other stuff, but it is what it is.”
The Pistons certainly tried to ramp up the pressure on Doncic as the game wore on, frequently trapping him near half court to force the ball out of his hands, with other Dallas players struggling to take advantage of the open 3-point looks they were getting.
“He’s been very unselfish with the double-teams,” Mavs head coach Jason Kidd said. “The rhythm of those shots, we just have to be consistent with because we’re going to see that all year. Once we started to knock those down, our defense picked up.”
“Sometimes you’ve just got to accept the coverage when they’re doubling,” Doncic added. “If I would have waited, they would still come double. But sometimes just before they go, attack. And attack the paint every time.”
“He’s tough,” Casey said. “He gets you inside with his body, scores, gets to the free throw line. If not, he steps back with his 3s. If you don’t have the right personnel, the right body on him, you’ve got to play like we did tonight. I thought we did as good a job as you can do to make somebody else try to beat you. We weren’t the first and we won’t be the last.”
