Remember the Mavs’ game 3 against the Celtics in last year’s NBA finals? Luka Doncic tried to set his feet just beyond the 3-point line as the Dallas Mavericks were making a furious comeback attempt. He was defending Jaylen Brown when the Boston guard dribbled between his legs, ducked his shoulder, and made contact, which sent both players to the ground with 4:12 left in the game. The foul was called against Doncic, who sat on the floor in disbelief with both of his arms stretched up into the air. It was Doncic’s sixth foul of the game, his fourth in the fourth quarter. Coach Jason Kidd challenged, but that came out unsuccessful, and Luka’s night was done.

The Mavericks were also mostly done for the game, and in the series as well, after the Boston Celtics won 106-99 on Wednesday night to go up 3-0 in the series. No team has ever overcome that deficit and won a championship. Neither did Dallas. Not just that game, during the entire series, the Celtics deliberately targeted Dončić while they possessed the ball, as they found a hole in the Mavs’ line of defense, and just kept exploiting that. Celtics head coach Joe Mazulla brilliantly exposed Dončić and implementing a winning strategy.

Luka became visibly upset at the refs about calls that weren’t called in his favor. And probably that was the point where it all started:  questions about Luka’s conditioning and defensive ability, something that Mavs GM Nico Harrison tacitly mentioned while explaining the trade. He said to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon: “I believe defense wins championships. Having an elite defender and a team-first defensive mentality gives us a better chance to succeed. We are built to win now and in the future.” In the post-trade environment, the narrative had almost got lost amid vehement criticism of Nico. But looks like the Bucks’ head coach Doc Rivers has brought that up to the surface again.

With LeBron James sidelined with a groin injury, much was on Luka. Sure, he had an incredible offensive night, going off for a 45-point double-double—his highest score in a Lakers uniform. But that did not prove enough to prevent a whopping 20-point loss. Rivers revealed the secret post-game: “We guarded him 1-on-1 for the most part. We did send a couple double teams, but our thinking was guard everybody else and you know, try to make him work on the other end and see how much he had in the tank, really.”

Long story short: instead of trying to limit Luka on offense, Doc targeted his defensive ability and conditioning (ahem!). Rivers continued, “He had 45, which is a lot. But I liked how it worked out.” Despite Luka Doncic’s scoring outburst, the head coach’s strategy worked, as the 5x All-Star struggled to create shots for his teammates and was limited to only three assists. Much lower than his season average of 8.3. Moreover, his contribution on defense was limited, further strengthening Harrison’s concerns. In fact, if we look at the numbers, there is no denying that Brown’s defense was one of the decisive factors of the Celtics’ championship victory.

Brown was consistently picking up Doncic full court, making him waste valuable seconds off the shot clock, and preventing him from getting the ball, fighting hard over screens. The Celtics star even stole the ball from Doncic a couple of times in the series. Taking up the challenge of defending Doncic for much of Game 5. He spent 7:10 of game time guarding Doncic, and the Dallas star scored just four points on 2-of-6 shooting as the Celtics secured a 106-88 win and the franchise’s 18th championship.

In fact, over the last three games of the Finals, Doncic had a lackluster 2-of-11 and scored just four points when Brown was the primary defender, per the NBA’s tracking data. Just take a look at this table of Doncic’s stats in the Finals when Jaylen Brown was the primary defender, per the NBA’s tracking data:

If this is not enough, then know this: The Mavericks had a lowly 84.4 offensive rating during the 154 possessions when Brown guarded Doncic over the five games, as reported by Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey. No wonder Brown clinched the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award.

Last month on ‘The Cedric Maxwell’ podcast, NBA Insider Marc Spears even went on to say, “That dude, he is the reason why Luka got traded. He shut him down in the finals. What he did to Luka in the Finals, shutting him down, guarding him full court, making it unbearable offensively, led Dallas to start questioning Luka as the leader of the team, and questioning whether he was in shape or not.”

He had further added, “I know Nico real well, he doesn’t just do stuff. I think there’s more to that story that I think they’re trying to be respectful and not going into the weeds but now we’ll see how things go with Luka in LA because things are already going to be much more magnified.” Surely, the NBA world is also eager to find that out. But for now, looks like LeBron’s return might be all LA is hoping for.

JJ Redick drops major LeBron James update amid the Lakers’ struggles

Well, it’s not completely fair to judge Doncic while he is missing his best teammate. He did everything he could to get Lakers a win tonight, even joining Kobe Bryant and LeBron James as the only Lakers stars to score 45+ points, double-digit rebounds, and five or more threes in a game. However, the lack of support from his teammates led to the team’s downfall (eerily similar to last season when Bron was in this exact spot, wouldn’t you say?).

Apart from him and Austin Reaves, no other starter even touched double digits! And naturally, it’s hard to win games for any team when that happens.

However, the Lakers’ struggles are likely to end once LeBron returns from injury. Before the game, JJ Redick revealed that LBJ had returned to LA for rest and recovery, and will be day-to-day moving forward. While he is expected to sit out tomorrow’s Nuggets clash, James could make a comeback on Sunday against the Suns. That would get the Lakers another consistent 25-point scorer and an elite playmaker to pair alongside Doncic. When that happens, it might shift focus from Luka, as LeBron will be there to make up for it.

When Luka Doncic got traded to the Lakers, he claimed that the doubts about his conditioning were not true and he planned on using it as a “motive” to get better. Although it didn’t work out tonight, hopefully we will see a different outcome tomorrow against the Nuggets.