Dallas Basketball

Luka Doncic Takes Blame for Mavs Heartbreaking Loss to Cavs: 'My Fault ... Should Have Pressed Up More'

Despite Luka Doncic putting up a stat line that has never been recorded before in NBA history, the Dallas Mavericks' hearts were snatched out of their chests with a Max Strus buzzer-beater that gave the Cleveland Cavaliers the win.

Dalton Trigg

Luka Doncic Takes Blame for Mavs Heartbreaking Loss to Cavs: 'My Fault ... Should Have Pressed Up More'
Luka Doncic Takes Blame for Mavs Heartbreaking Loss to Cavs: 'My Fault ... Should Have Pressed Up More' /
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The Dallas Mavericks suffered heartbreak on Tuesday night, as they watched Max Strus give the Cleveland Cavaliers a 121-119 win with a 59-foot heave from beyond half court – the second-longest game-winning shot in the NBA's 3-point era.

In front of a large Slovenian crowd, Luka Doncic was magnificent, scoring 45 points on 17-29 shooting to go with nine rebounds, 14 assists and just one turnover. There is no other player in league history with that stat line in the Basketball Reference database.

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David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Despite Doncic's massive performance, it was overshadowed by Strus' heroics for Cleveland, and the four-time All-NBA First Teamer took blame for how that final shot played out.

"Incredible shot. I have nothing much to say. Max hurt us in the 4th quarter a lot, but that was an incredible shot, man," Doncic said. "That was my fault. I should have pressed up more. I was the first one, so that was my bad."

Although it's honorable for Doncic to take responsibility for the Mavs losing, it's also not quite fair. His 45 points and 14 assists were the main reasons Dallas didn't get blown out in last night's contest, and orchestrated the play to give P.J. Washington the go-ahead layup with 2.6 seconds remaining before disaster struck.

Max Strus Hits 59-Foot Shot to Clinch Cavs Victory Over Mavs at Buzzer

Sometimes it's better to be a little more lucky than good, and Strus got the best of the Mavs in that department on Tuesday. Dallas won't have long to dwell on this loss, as they play the Toronto Raptors on a second night of a back-to-back on Wednesday.

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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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