Things moved along after that and the five-time All-Star explained what kept him going in the Mavericks’ 119-110 win against Oklahoma City.
“It was one of the hardest games I’ve had to play,” Doncic said after Dallas evened the series at 1-1.
Doncic, who’s been dealing with a right knee sprain, finished with 29 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists after a shooting slump in Game 1.
He score or assisted on 24 of 36 points for Dallas in the first quarter.
Mavericks forward PJ Washington scored 19 of his 29 points in the first half and tallied 11 rebounds and four assists.
Doncic and Washington became the first duo in NBA history with 25 points, including five three-pointers, and 10 rebounds in a playoff game, per ESPN stats.
Mavericks forward Tim Hardaway Jr. finished with 17 points in the Game 2 win.
It was OKC’s first loss in the 2024 NBA playoffs.
Luka Doncic’s frustration spilled into his postgame press conference after a blowout loss to the Suns on Wednesday night.
The Mavericks star, who was called for his eighth technical foul this season, got into a fiery back-and-forth with ESPN’s Tim MacMahon while explaining why he had security remove a heckling Suns fan during the third quarter at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
“That wasn’t the only thing he [the fan], said, but I knew you would be the first one to… put out something like that,” Doncic said, adding that he would not repeat what the fan yelled.
“It’s just funny, you always seem to be the first one to put out bad stuff about me.”
Doncic took issue with MacMahon reporting on the incident in a post on X, claiming the fan — who was “sitting two rows behind [the] midcourt press row” — shouted: “Luka, you’re tired! Get your ass on the treadmill!”
MacMahon disagreed with Doncic.
“Luka, first of all, 99 percent of the stuff I’ve written about you has been good,” he said.
“Second of all, the guy was sitting two rows behind us.”
When Doncic asked if that was the first time MacMahon heard the heckler shouting at him, the reporter said, “That was the one you reacted to. He was definitely hollering all game.”
Doncic also claimed the fan was “cursing me out” during the “whole first half” of the Suns’ 132-109 win.
When asked why he didn’t have the fan ejected during the first half, Doncic said: “Because I never would eject a fan. They paid for tickets, but I had enough. It’s a little bit of frustration.”
