Luka Doncic could be seen exchanging a few words with Kyrie Irving late in Game 5, once it had become clear the Dallas Mavericks would fall prey to the Boston Celtics in these NBA Finals.
“We said, ‘We’ll fight together next season, and we just going to believe,’” Doncic said after the game.
It was a tough night for the Mavericks, who lost the game 106-88 and lost the series 4-1.
But Doncic was unwilling to blame his injuries on falling short.
“It doesn’t matter if I was hurt [or] how much I was hurt,” he said. “I was out there, trying to play. But I didn’t do enough.”
Doncic’s co-star, Kyrie Irving, had a positive take on Dallas’ situation when he addressed the media postgame.
“We answered a lot of questions this year on what we were capable of doing and now it’s just about being consistent,” Irving said. “I think probably in the last week, I said that I wanted to be remembered as one of the best teams of this era and our last few champions have been a new one each and every year.
“So, I see an opportunity for us to really build our future in a positive manner where this is almost like a regular thing for us, and we’re competing for championships. You know, I think from a spiritual standpoint, I think I enjoyed this journey more than any other season, just because of the redemption arc and being able to learn as much as I did about myself and my teammates and the organization and the people that I’m around.”
Both Irving and Doncic will be back with the Mavericks next season, when they will attempt to complete the same bounce back from Finals defeat that the Celtics did.
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