Dallas Basketball

Dallas Mavs’ Luka Doncic Reveals What He Loves Most About Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic

Although the Dallas Mavericks lost to the Denver Nuggets on Friday night, Luka Doncic always enjoys the opportunity to compete against his good friend Nikola Jokic.

Dalton Trigg

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Friday night’s In-Season Tournament matchup with the Denver Nuggets meant a lot to the Dallas Mavericks, despite enduring a 125-114 loss. Not only did they get valuable experience on the road against a championship-level team, but they also learned more about their weaknesses and what they must improve to reach that level.

For Mavs superstar Luka Doncic, a game against the Nuggets means even more, as he has a brother-like relationship with reigning Finals MVP Nikola Jokic. After Friday’s game Doncic spoke about competing against Jokic and what he likes most about his Serbian friend.

"I think everybody knew him before [the MVPs and NBA Finals],” Doncic said. “He's not really on the media stuff a lot, but all the players, all the coaches know how special he is. Everybody knows how special he is. … He’s right now, probably the best basketball player in the world."

Luka Doncic talks to Nikola Jokic during the Dallas Mavericks’ game against the Denver Nuggets on Friday night :: C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images

Doncic and Jokic put up classic stat lines in their head-to-head duel. Doncic finished with 34 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, despite only shooting 11-24 and committing a nine turnovers. Jokic put up 33 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists while shooting 14-16 overall.

"It's great. It's always fun with him,” Doncic said of playing against Jokic. "Of course, he’s an amazing basketball player, but he's a great guy. That's what I love the most about him. Just always joking around. He's just a simple and very amazing man.”

The Mavs still have a long way to go to get to the same level the Nuggets are currently at, but maybe when/if that time comes, Doncic and Jokic, who are arguably two of the top three players on the planet right now, can add some epic postseason duels to their head-to-head portfolio. Basketball fans everywhere should be hoping we get to witness that at some point.

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.

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