"He's a hot-dog, he's like a hot-dog, high-school basketball, Imma show my stuff" - Keyshawn Johnson berates 3x All-Star's flashy style of play after Warriors best Mavericks in Game 3
The absolute demolition that was Game 7 of the Phoenix Suns versus Dallas Mavericks series probably tells more about the gaps in the Phoenix Suns' roster and play-style than it does about Dallas' dominance. Dallas went down 0-3 in the Western Conference finals on Sunday.
Keyshawn Johnson, on ESPN's "Keyshawn, JWill & Max," spoke about how he sees Luka Dončić’s performances as ineffective, stating:
"He's a hot-dog, he's like a hot-dog, high-school basketball, Imma show my stuff... all of a sudden the lead (in the fourth-quarter) kinda evaporated and then they got going again but the 40 points, for whatever reason is slow and feels empty to me, it wasn't in the course of the game when it really truly mattered."
Game 4 will be played on Tuesday in Dallas.
Statistically analyzing why Luka Dončić's ball-dominant play undermines the Mavericks' play on the floor
Player-tracking from Game 2 of the Western Conference finals reveals plenty about the Mavericks team. Luka had, unsurprisingly, the most touches on the team, with 104 for the game.
How dispersed the amount of touches were for every player on the team reflects that the Mavericks, despite having Brunson and Dinwiddie, live and die by Luka Dončić.
Worst record when scoring 40+ points in playoffs history:
2-6 Luka Doncic
3-4 Russell Westbrook
They are the only players with a losing record (min 5 games). https://t.co/7eIg8zuljq
Before we get to the nitty-gritty, a few things for the ease of the reader: the higher the spread of the touches, the bigger the deviations, which simply means that some players get to touch the ball a lot, while others don't.
A lower spread would imply the exact opposite. We will also only consider data for players who have played at least ten minutes in the game. For Game 2, the Mavericks had a total of 377 touches for the game and the spread for the touches was 25.98.
In contrast, the Warriors had a spread of just 12.17. This would imply that the Warriors are over 2.0x better at distributing the ball than the Mavericks, a team that relies almost exclusively on three-point shooting and playing small ball.
But here's the kicker: Luka Dončić is the slowest player on the floor for Dallas, clocking in at 3.87 mph. The slowest person on the floor spends the most time with the ball, which not only reduces the overall pace of the game, but also gives ample time for the opponent to get back on defense.
Jason Kidd really is in a pickle this series. When his team shot 13/45 from the three-point line, they lost the game. When his team shot 21/45 from the three-point line, they still lost the game.