Luka Doncic Trying to Stay Positive Amid Mavs’ Skid: ‘When You Lose Games, It’s Hard’

Despite having three consecutive triple-doubles, Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks have struggled to string together wins at the most crucial point of the season.

The Dallas Mavericks picked a bad time to lost four out of five games with Western Conference playoff positioning on the line every night. Following a 28-point blowout loss to the Boston Celtics on Friday night, the Mavs followed that up with a stinker on Sunday against the Philadelphia 76ers, who didn’t have their MVP Joel Embiid.

Despite being on a skid, the Mavs are still just one game back of the No. 6 seed in West. Luka Doncic, who has tallied three consecutive triple-doubles, is doing his best to try to stay positive through the storm, but he admits that it’s challenging to do so.

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“I mean it’s hard. When you lose games, it’s hard,” Doncic said. “In the NBA, you’ve got another game in one or two days, so just have to bring that energy.”

When asked if the Mavs’ lack of energy was more mental or physical, Doncic says the team could do better in both categories, and he knows that he has to spearhead that effort. After jumping out to an 11-0 start the first quarter, the Mavs almost immediately let the 76ers back into the game with a run of their own and trailed 32-22 at the end of the period.

“I think it’s a little bit of both, but just, like the energy just has to be from the first second, minute of the game. I could do better for sure. That’s on me. When I do it, people follow me, so I’ve got to do better too,” Doncic said.

“We started pretty hot. We had three 3s out of transition, but I don’t know what changed. We just let them do their own things, so we’ve got to get better at that.”

Luka Doncic's Mavs Lose Against Embiid-Less Sixers Amid Flat Performance

Whatever the Mavs’ issues may be, fatigue is not one of them — at least not one that Doncic is willing to accept.

“No, there’s 29 other teams that have probably the same schedule, so that’s not an excuse,” Doncic said.

The Mavs are finally healthy across the board for the first time since the start of the season, and now, the challenge for head coach Jason Kidd is to figure out his best rotations going forward. Dallas will have a chance to get things back on track against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday — the team that ended their season-high seven-game win streak with a 22-point blowout last week.