Luka Doncic loses aura points! The Dallas Mavericks guard once again failed to take the team past the finish line. Following the disappointing loss against the Celts in the 2024 NBA Finals, the Slovenian star fell short in the NBA Cup quarterfinals tonight. Most importantly, to further rub salt in the wounds, 2x NBA Champ Quinn Cook dropped a brutal statement involving Jayson Tatum in response to Luka Magic’s underwhelming performance against the OKC Thunder.

Tonight, the Thunder came in prepared to seek revenge. The Mavs repeatedly hurt the OKC side twice in a few months’ gap. First, the Texas side kicked out the young and thriving team in the Conference semis and again in a regular season game last month. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander came in prepared and dropped 39 points with 8 rebounds to take a comfortable 118-104 win.

On the other end, Luka Doncic had an underwhelming night, dropping just 16 points with 5-15 FG. Unfortunately, he didn’t get any help from Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving either, as they only put together 36 points. In reaction to this event, Quinn Cook made an extreme verdict. He took his X handle and wrote, “Luka one of my favorite players ever, but I watched him quit on his team tonight. Stop comparing that man to Tatum. It’s not close.” Notably, the former Warriors player deleted the post moments after he shared it.

Tonight was an opportunity for Luka Doncic to prove himself again, playing the crucial knockout game. There have been plenty of criticisms from the experts stating that the Mavs guard doesn’t show up when the game is on the line. While it may sound like an outrageous statement, Stephen A. Smith once called him out ahead of the previous season. He listed some of Tatum’s crunch performances and accolades of reaching multiple conference finals and an NBA Finals (It’s 2 now, and he is also a champion) and declared him a better player than Doncic.

Is Jayson Tatum really better than Luka Doncic?

It’s very subjective to call someone better in the basketball realm. Looking solely at the number of Finals that a person has reached, it becomes completely invalid as the teammates’ contributions also come into play. Last season, both Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum reached the Finals and it was JT who had the last laugh.

Meanwhile, it’s too early to write off a player like Luka right after a one-off knockout game in the NBA Cup. Last season, the Indiana Pacers kicked out the Celts in the NBA Cup semi-finals, and who won the Finals? It was the Celts. So, it’s completely unfair to make such a statement.

Above all, the duo hold mutual respect for each other. During a match-up between JT and Luka in the regular season, the duo had a heated exchange on the court after Tatum blocked Luka’s bucket. While everyone wanted to hear the Celtic star’s words on it, he surprised everyone.

In the post-game interview, he said, “Everyone knows how talented and how special he is. He did so many things on the court. Somebody I respect and like competing against… We just have fun competing against each other.” So, it is just a healthy competition between the two, and Doncic has a lot of mouths to shut. Will he do it this season? Let us know in the comments.