Late-Game Struggles: Luka Doncic Shares Honest Thoughts on Mav’s Clutch Struggles

The Dallas Mavericks faltered down the stretch in their 120-117 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center on Tuesday night. Close losses have become a bit of a theme for the Mavericks this season and Luka Doncic touched on that problem and some other issues during his postgame press conference, via Grant Afseth.

Luka Doncic on the Mavericks’ struggles in close games:

“I think last year we were a very, very good clutch team. This year, not so good so far. We’ve lost two-straight by two or three points, so we just gotta work on closing out games.”

Luka Doncic on the Mavericks’ shot selection in the closing stages:

“I think it could’ve been way better. The shot clock was going down, so I was kinda trying to get to my spot, and then on the last shot I was trying to look if somebody was open, so I saw there’s three, four seconds to go, so I just took the shot.”

Luka Doncic on the facets of playing off the ball that he’s still getting adjusted to:

“Just overall. Just playing without the ball. Just all of it.”

It is bizarre just how much things have changed from last season for the Mavericks. They were 23-9 in clutch games in the 2023-24 campaign, with their 71.9% win rate being the second-best in the league. If it was a close game, you knew the Mavericks were going to come out on top a lot more often than not.

Now, though, following this loss to the Warriors, the Mavericks have dropped to 1-5 in clutch games in 2024-25. Their 16.7% win rate is the second-worst in the league, with only the Milwaukee Bucks (0%) being worse off.

In this contest with the Warriors, the Mavericks seemed to be in control when they were up 112-105 with just under four minutes remaining. What followed, was some Stephen Curry magic and an offensive disasterclass from the visitors.

Curry scored 12 points in the final four minutes of this game while the Mavericks, as a team, managed just five. Their offensive execution wasn’t good enough as they committed some costly turnovers and took some pretty ill-advised shots.

Doncic, who had 31 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and three steals on the night, was the one who took the last of those bad shots. The 25-year-old had a chance to tie the game in the closing stages but instead of trying to get a good look, he attempted a very difficult three-pointer and badly missed.