‘The old Luka, with a smile’: Luka Doncic reasserts dominance, magic in pivotal Game 5 win

OKLAHOMA CITY – Sprained right knee. Sore left ankle and Achilles. Stiff back.

The accumulation of injuries clearly had taken a toll on Luka Doncic during this second-round series, but Wednesday night he conquered the pain, and Oklahoma City, by summoning Luka Magic in the Mavericks’ 104-92 Game 5 victory in Paycom Center.

“The old Luka, with a smile on my face,” as Doncic put it.

Was it vintage Playoff Luka? No, but he was plenty overpowering with 31 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds as Dallas took a 3-2 series lead over the No. 1 seed Thunder and moved within one victory of its second Western Conference finals berth in three seasons.

Along with the sheer numbers there was Doncic panache sprinkled through the night, highlighted by a second-quarter, 75-foot alley-oop to Dereck Lively II; and punctuated with a block of a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander layup with 54 seconds left.

Not coincidentally, care to guess when and where and in what situation Doncic’s other dominant performance was since these injuries mounted? It was Game 5 of the first round, when he had 35 points and 10 assists in Los Angeles in a 30-point Dallas victory that broke a 2-2 series tie.

“The whole team stepped up,” Doncic said. “I couldn’t do it without my teammates. Everybody that came on the floor gave 100% energy. We play as a team. We win as a team. We lose as a team.

“This team is special,” he added. “We’ve only been together for what, five months? I’ve been having a lot of fun with this team.”

Many among the Paycom Center sellout crowd began the game booing Doncic every time he touched the ball. A couple of fans donned homemade T-shirts bearing Doncic’s face and a photoshopped pacifier, a dig at his propensity for complaining to referees.

On this night, though, he was cool and composed Luka. The few times he spoke to officials, he did so diplomatically. He said that was intentional.

“Just focused on basketball,” he said. “I talked to [the referees] normal, without complaining or nothing. I just go out there and hoop and have fun. It was the old Luka, with a smile on my face.”

The Mavericks were coming off a humbling Game 4 loss at home in which they missed 11 of 23 free throws and melted down in the fourth quarter.

Dallas, though, has bounced back time and again this season, often on the road. The team brought a collective focus to Oklahoma City.

“Nobody likes losing,” said Derrick Jones Jr., who followed his 17-point Game 4 performance with 19 in Game 5. “When you let one slip like like, obviously we’re going to have a sour taste in our mouth.”

The first indicator of Doncic’s laser focus was when he arrived on the court to warm up 20 minutes earlier than usual.

“I saw it in his warmup,” Jones said. “He came out earlier and was knocking down shots and I was just sitting back saying, ‘It’s going to be a long day for them.’

“I’m always harping on 77. Once he gets a rhythm and has it going, he’s tough to stop.”

The boos subsided as Doncic hit big shot after big shot — glaring defiantly at the Thunder bench after draining a 3-pointer with 5:32 left in the third quarter to give Dallas a 68-53 lead. Midway through the fourth quarter there were brief “Luka sucks!” chants, but those, too, faded.

“I love it,” Doncic said. “If they want to chant ‘Luka sucks,’ it gets me going. It’s even better.”

Doncic seemed disappointed to hear about the two fans with the Luka pacifier T-shirts. Not disappointed that they wore the shirts, but that he didn’t see them.

“They love me,” he said. “They paid for the shirts to be putting my face on them. That’s a lot of attention.”

How big was Wednesday’s victory? In NBA playoff history, teams that won Game 5 of a 2-2 series have won the series 190 times and have lost only 42 times. The Mavericks know all too well because that’s what they did to the Clippers in the first round.

Doncic clearly had not been his dominant self since Game 3 of Dallas’ first-round series against the Clippers, when he banged knees in the first quarter with center Ivica Zubac.

In the eight games since then, entering Wednesday night, Doncic averaged 25.2 points on 39.3% shooting, including 22.9% on 3-pointers. Even when he scored 35 points in Game 5 against the Clippers, he shot only 2-of-8 on 3-pointers.

By halftime Wednesday, though, Doncic not only was dominating the Thunder in the painted area, shooting 7-of-11 overall, but he was also 2-of-4 from 3-point range.

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd was asked before the game what the difference-maker usually is when a series is tied 2-2 and both teams are locked in on each other’s plays and tendencies.

“I think it’s just your will, your want,” he said. “Everybody knows what’s coming. Everybody knows what play is being ran, who’s going to have the ball. It just comes down to will and want and we’ll see who wants it the most.”

Obviously that was Doncic and the Mavericks in Game 5. The Mavericks can clinch the series with a Game 6 win Saturday in American Airlines Center.

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.