DALLAS – Responding to the harsh criticism Dallas Mavericks star Luka Dončić has received after a foul in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, his coach told him to “give my man a break.”

“For whatever reason there have been some personal attacks on him, but he will learn from it and he will be better when he comes back from it,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said in a series of lengthy comments on the criticism of Dončić. feet for the past two days.

“I think that’s the thing I’m most disappointed about, is that we are at the highest stage where we have one of the best players in the world playing the game the right way, but we want to criticize a number of things he doesn’t do. Well,” Kidd added.

Kidd refused to highlight a single criticism, and there were plenty to choose from. Although Dončić averaged almost 30 points per game in this series, he was repeatedly targeted on defense by the Boston Celtics and was called for four fouls in the fourth quarter, resulting in him being disqualified for a narrow loss in Game 3.

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“If you look at what’s happened here the last few days and if you look at the Mavs, Luka has improved his defense,” Kidd argued. “But we ask him, or some ask him, to be a shutdown defender. Well, he’s never been on an All-Defensive Team, but he has been on five All-Pro teams, first team. So that means he’s one of the top five players in the world, and he plays the game the right way so he can find open guys.”

Dončić is criticized not only for his defense, but also for his incessant complaints against officials. After making a mistake last summer during a 2023 FIBA ​​World Cup match for Slovenia, Dončić vowed to learn to control his temper – a process that, we can say, is ongoing.

“When you’re on the biggest stage, there’s got to be someone to poke a hole,” Kidd said. “This will only make the greats better. If you look, we talked about it yesterday, with LeBron, Michael, the bigs, the GOATs, they all got poked and they came back stronger and better.

“We’re all here to see him play, okay, so let’s just enjoy it,” Kidd added. “He is 25 years old. He will be better. Hopefully he’ll be better tonight.”

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(Photo: Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)