Tonight the Mavs face elimination. It has been an intense series with a lot of trash talk and antics, so I am backing a pissed off Luka with his back against the wall.
Whew. 33.5 is a crazy number I never thought I would write about, but here we are. His volume is unmatched, and I think we see even more volume tonight. He has only averaged 35.3 min over the last 3 games. He battled foul trouble in 2 and we saw a dreadful 30 point blowout last game that ruined bets across the nation. Luka went under in all three of those games. While foul trouble is always a possibility, I think the NBA’s motivation to keep Luka on the floor will be high so we can see a game 7 in this series. At home tonight, I like Dallas to make this a game and they should rely on massive minutes from Luka. In the 37.2 min Luka has averaged this series, he is putting up 25 field goal attempts, 9.2 three point attempts, and 7.8 free throws. We have 2 prior elimination games to reference in Luka’s career in which he played 42 minutes and 45 minutes. He scored 38 and 46 in those games with 29.0 field goal attempts, 10.0 3 point attempts, and 9.5 free throw attempts. As long as the refs do not whistle him off the floor, I think we see similar numbers here as the pressure is beginning to grow on Luka’s young career. He does not want to lose this series in front of his home crowd.
