The Mavericks won Game 2 because they have Luka Doncic and ...

The thing about Luka Doncic, despite the wild game winners, ridiculous trick shots, the meteoric scoring barrages, at his core he likes to pass. When Doncic is at his best, and when the Mavericks are at their best, Doncic is beating teams with the pass first, shot second. It sounds silly for a guy who just led the NBA in scoring, and who also drilled another wild game winner Friday night in Game 2 against the Timberwolves, but it feels true.

In Game 1, the Wolves dared Doncic to beat them with his shot. They played their normal drop coverage with defensive anchor Rudy Gobert, and dared Doncic to play 2-on-2 in the pick and roll and make contested two point looks. Minnesota stayed glued to Dallas’ shooters, and the Mavericks only made six total three pointers. Despite all of that, Dallas won, thanks to its newly improved defense, but also because Doncic beat what the Wolves threw at him — he made 4-of-7 from the midrange, including a dagger over Jaden McDaniels in the final minute.

Even though Dallas had an overall pedestrian offensive game in that win, the Wolves were apparently spooked enough to throw most of that defensive scheme in the trash. Perhaps worried about Doncic killing them with more long twos, or just wanting to mix up it to try and keep him on his toes, the Wolves played Doncic tight in Game 2, blitzing and putting two on the ball in the pick and roll almost all night. This time the Wolves dared Doncic to beat them with his pass, and Doncic obliged with one of the best passing games of his life.

Doncic finished with 13 assists and four turnovers, despite being doubled for a majority of the game. He would have had even more if the Mavericks role players made more shots, as the non-Doncic and Kyrie Irving Mavericks combined to shoot 3-of-13 from three, including an 0-for-7 mark from starting forwards Derrick Jones Jr. and PJ Washington. In the fourth quarter alone, Doncic only scored five of his 32 points and made one bucket (of course, the game-winner) but did have five assists and zero turnovers. From the opening tip to the final buzzer, Doncic was in control of this game, with some of the most pinpoint passing I’ve seen in a single game from him in his entire career.

Considering that most of these passes came under pressure of two long, big defenders and a hostile crowd roaring, it just made Doncic’s orchestration all the more impressive.

The thing with Doncic is that when he has two on him, he rarely panics. You don’t see Doncic airmail many passes out of double teams into the third row, and a recurring theme in Game 2 when Doncic was doubled was how quick and decisive Doncic was with his options. There wasn’t much surveying the floor, because to Doncic, the floor is already surveyed — he knows what the defense is doing before they do it and he knows where his players will be before they’re actually there. That showed in the countless drop offs to rookie center Dereck Lively II, who was excellent making decisions in short roll, 4-on-3 situations.

The Mavericks didn’t convert in the two sequences above, but the shots are great and in rhythm. Also notice where Lively is catching the ball, as Doncic doesn’t make Lively have to extend or reach for an errant pass. Despite the pressure, Doncic puts it right on the money every time.

Speaking of right on the money, when Doncic wasn’t setting up his big to make a decision, he was spoon-feeding them dunks and layups. Doncic continually looked off the Wolves defense with his eyes before darting a perfect laser to either Lively or starting center Daniel Gafford for a quick two. Doncic knows the Wolves protect the corner three better than most teams, so he used that tendency against them to force Wolves defenders to hedge toward a pass that was never coming. Doncic might be the best in the NBA at this play.

In the first clip above, watch Karl Anthony-Towns specifically, who is the help man on the Lively rim run. Towns is positioned fine to stop a Lively dunk as Doncic is starting to load up the pass.

With Doncic in the air, he looks toward Washington in the weakside corner.

By the time Doncic actually releases the pass, Towns has committed a step and turned his shoulders toward the corner. It wasn’t even much, maybe a second worth of movement and boom the ball is in Lively’s hands for a dunk.

In Game 1 Doncic had eight assists, while making those four mid-range shots. In Game 2, he was 0-for-3 from midrange, mission accomplished Minnesota! Doncic is like an Amoeba, and he can morph his game to whatever the defense gives him. Contrast that to Wolves young phenom Anthony Edwards, who only had two turnovers but both of them backbreakers in the final moments of the game. You can clearly see the difference in someone like Doncic, who has multiple playoff runs under his belt, and Edwards, still 22-years-old, in the first deep run of his career.

For Doncic to cap all that brilliant decision-making off with another audacious step-back game winner just speaks to the legend he continues to build for himself. Dallas is up 2-0 in this Western Conference Finals, and the star power of Doncic feels like the difference.

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