There are two traits that define Luka Doncic. One, and by far the more important of the two, is that he is extremely good at basketball, to the point that he is among the best players in the world and is the centerpiece team of a Dallas Mavericks franchise that has aspirations of winning a championship sooner rather than later.
The other trait is that the dude gets really, really mad sometimes. Doncic is among the most expressive players in the league, and when he is unhappy with something, he lets people — and by people, I mean the referees — know about it. An example of this came in Game 3 of Mavs-Suns, as Doncic tried to barrel his way through Chris Paul and got called for a charge.
Now, Paul is very much a master of the dark arts, and is not afraid to embellish contact as a way to get a call. While this did seem like a legitimate offensive foul call, Doncic didn’t buy it, and as a result, he did an impression of Paul by pretending to flop.
Luka was not happy about this foul call and imitated CP3. pic.twitter.com/Z9bAsCg3N1
— ESPN (@espn) May 7, 2022
A lot of things went right for Doncic in the first half — 16 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, Dallas leading by seven — but this one seemed to really get under his skin.