Luka Doncic, drenched in sweat and despair, his hair matted, his face flush, his neck wrapped in a towel, settled in for his final postgame interview of the 2023-24 season about an hour before midnight on Monday. In the back of the room, a blizzard of green-and-white confetti filled the entirety of a massive TV screen. The Celtics’ championship celebration had barely begun when the Dallas Mavericks’ star fielded his first question.
That’s the thing about being ahead of schedule, on the court or at the podium: It can get uncomfortable rather quickly.
“Nothing,” Doncic said when asked what he was feeling, his voice so low and monotone that the microphone barely picked it up. “Sad we lost. No specific.”
A thrilling, and wholly surprising, run to the NBA Finals had ended with a wholly lopsided 106-88 defeat in Game 5, and a 4-1 loss in the series. Doncic had been dominant at times, but not often enough. Kyrie Irving had been occasionally brilliant, just not in any of the games in Boston (all losses). The Celtics were simply deeper, more talented, more seasoned—and ultimately overwhelming for a young, recently assembled Mavericks team that at one point wasn’t even a sure bet to make the playoffs.
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