INDIANAPOLIS – Luka Doncic described Saturday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse as not exactly one of his finest hours thus far in the NBA.
That’s because Doncic was ejected from the game against the Indiana Pacers for inexplicably kicking the ball into the stands. The rookie’s frustrations boiled over with three minutes left in the third quarter, and the Mavs went on to lose to the Pacers, 111-99, before a crowd of 17,508.
However, Doncic, who also picked up a technical foul at the conclusion of the first half, explained after the game that he wasn’t trying to kick the ball into the stands. And he added that he didn’t know the mitigating circumstances for committing such a transgression.
“I was just trying to play soccer,” Doncic said. “I didn’t try to kick the ball out of the stands. For sure, I didn’t know the rule if you go (kick the ball) to the stands you are ejected. It’s a different rule in Europe. I didn’t know that was a rule.
“I wouldn’t have been ejected for that, for sure, in Europe. I was trying to juggle the ball, for sure. I’ve got to work on my soccer skills.”
The Mavs are now 20-25 on the season going into Monday’s 1 p.m. game in Milwaukee.
Dallas was down, 78-65, when Doncic was handed his second technical foul and the automatic ejection. The Mavs got the deficit to as low as 10 points – 96-86 following a 3-pointer by Wesley Matthews with 6:46 remaining in the game.
It was still a 10-point deficit until the Pacers used a 3-pointer by Tyreke Evans, a layup by Bojan Bogdanovic and a bucket by Cory Joseph to run off seven straight points and widen their lead to 105-88 with 4:26 left in the game.
“Look, we did some good some things to get back in touch with the game and get it manageable,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “But the bottom line is the first-half turnovers were a big problem again, and we’ve got to clean those up.
“Indiana is a great defensive team. They’ve got a lot of guys that deflect (passes), steal, disrupt, and we just got to be better with our ball security.”
Carlisle also knows Doncic has got to be better at staying out of situations that will get him tossed from a game.
“Frustrated obviously, but it’s a situation that he’s got to avoid,” Carlisle said. “There’s going to be nights like that. He’s got to keep playing the game.
“We need him, we can’t afford to lose a guy like that. We can’t afford to lose any of our guys, so that was unfortunate. I don’t remember the exact play that he disagreed with what was going on and he kicked the ball into the stands. That’s an automatic technical, and it’s two (technical fouls and he’s out.”
Doncic finished the game with just eight points, five rebounds, six assists and three steals, but was only 3-of-14 from the field and 0-of-5 from 3-point range. It was just the fourth time all season he’s been held under 10 points in a game, and he added that he was frustrated with the lack of calls that didn’t go his way.
“I wasn’t playing good, for sure,” Doncic said. “It’s one of the (worst) games I’ve played, so yeah, I was frustrated before (kicking the ball) for sure.”
Harrison Barnes led the Mavs with 20 points, Matthews poured in 17 points, DeAndre Jordan collected 15 points and 16 rebounds, Jalen Brunson tallied 12 points, and Dwight Powell added 11 points and five rebounds.
Once the game got out of hand, the fans started chanting: “We want Dirk, We want Dirk, We want Dirk!” Carlisle obliged and inserted Dirk Nowitzki back into the game with 2:59 left.
Nowitzki, however, missed three 3-pointers down the stretch and finished the night with no points on 0-of-5 shots from downtown. But the crowd even booed when Dorian Finney-Smith scored on a layup, because they wanted him to instead throw the ball out on the perimeter to Nowitzki.
“It was very humbling and very appreciative of the fans,” Nowitzki said. “It’s been very emotional. To be honest, it’s been good to know that you’ve done something over the last two decades and get appreciated on the road — that’s very special.”
It was a scene very similar to when the Mavs played in Boston on Jan. 4, and the fans were cheering wildly for Nowitzki, who also went scoreless that night.
Meanwhile, against the Pacers, Dallas trailed 24-23 after the first quarter and 58-42 at intermission, thanks to the Mavs committing nine of their 13 turnovers in the first half.
As far as putting the ejection behind him, Doncic: “I know it was my fault. I learned a new thing today.
“Everybody does bad things in their life, so it’s not going to stop me the next game. That’s the good thing about the NBA. The next game is in two days, so just forget about it and move on.”
NOTES: Rick Carlisle gave a lot of praise to Pacers center Myles Turner, who played his high school basketball at Euless Trinity and his college basketball at Texas. “I love him,” Carlisle said. “He’s a great young player. He’s the future of the (center) position in the NBA. A guy that roll and finish above the rim, can half-roll and make the plays. He can shoot mid-range and he can shoot long range and he can drive the ball. He’s got the whole skill set.”. . .Carlisle was an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers from 1997-’00 and the head coach of the Pacers from 2003-’07. So he knows a thing or two about how rabid Indiana fans are about basketball. “Indiana is a very unique and special basketball state,” Carlisle said. “The high school competition gets a lot of attention — the movie Hoosiers is historic. And you’ve got (Indiana University) and Purdue and Ball State. Butler has developed a great program over the years, too. So it’s just a basketball-rich community. With no pro hockey team here, so really it’s all basketball all the time.” They celebrated basketball in the state of Indiana on Saturday. . .Duncanville native Tamika Catchings has her jersey retired in the rafters at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Catchings is known for recording the first known quintuple-double in the history of basketball. While at Duncanville, Catchings once picked up 25 points, 18 rebounds, 11 assists, 10 blocks and 10 steals in a game. A 10-time WNBA All-Star, Catchings played for the Indiana Fever from 2002-’16.
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