(Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
Coming into the NBA playoffs, the Dallas Mavericks were considered to be a legitimate threat in the Western Conference, but few saw this team going the distance, especially being underdogs in each of the three rounds they played in before reaching the NBA Finals.
However, Luka Doncic and his squad proved to be as resilient as any team in the playoffs, with Kyrie Irving also coming on strong at times to take over games and prove that he’s still one of the elite guards in the NBA today.
Along with pulling off three consecutive series upsets against the Los Angeles Clippers, top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, and the defensive-minded Minnesota Timberwolves, Doncic had changed the narrative when it came to who the best player in the NBA was, as he made it an honest debate between himself and Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.
There wasn’t much debate going into the postseason this year about Jokic being the league’s best player, but Doncic’s incredible playoff run changed that, at least until the Finals.
With the Mavericks being no competition for the Boston Celtics up to this point in the Finals and Doncic fouling out the way he did in Game 3, ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins thinks the superstar has hurt his stock in the league, via ESPN’s “First Take.”
.@KendrickPerkins says Luka has hurt his stock in the NBA Finals pic.twitter.com/VzC6YnkPbx
— First Take (@FirstTake) June 14, 2024
Perkins isn’t wrong in his assessment of Doncic and what has happened throughout the Finals, especially in the aftermath of his behavior in Game 3, which only hurt his team rather than helped them when they desperately needed to win that game.
It’ll be interesting to see the narrative if the Mavericks lose in Game 4 tonight or at some point down the road in this series.
The post Kendrick Perkins Says 1 Mavericks Star Has ‘Hurt His Stock’ In Finals appeared first on The Cold Wire.