Okay, that’s it. Time to shut down Luka Doncic for the season. I don’t care if the Mavericks (who have a vested interest in pretend he’s healthy so they can sell more tickets) say he’s good to go. If my star rookie felt a pop in his knee and I didn’t even want to win more games anyway, that would be it for him. Knees are precious. You do not mess around with knees. Do I need to bring out a list of players who messed around with knees and paid the ultimate price (their careers)? Because it’s a very sad list.
Correspondingly, it’s time for Jalen Brunson to step up even higher than he already has. He has to be the exciting rookie who is a clear part of the team’s future and possibly a future All-Star. There is no one else to do those things. What other rookies are around to generate hype for the franchise? Ryan Broekhoff? Don’t make me LOL. Ray Spalding disappeared to some other team. Daryl Macon doesn’t get to play. Kostas Antetokounmpo REALLY doesn’t get to play. And that’s all the rookies I can think of for them. It’s clear: Brunson has to step up.
He kind of did in the first half of this game, scoring a bunch of points, but he slowed down a lot in the second half and ended up with merely his third-highest scoring game ever instead of the highest ever like it should’ve been.