Luka Doncic has had a terrific start to this season.
The Mavericks star leads the league with 33.5 points and an amazing 49.4% accuracy rate considering its volume. The Slovenian continues to flirt with a triple-double average thanks to 9.1 rebounds and 8.1 assists. He’s even among the league leaders in steals for the first time in his career.
The Mavs have lost some games that they would like to get back, but it will be hard not to give Doncic the MVP award if he continues to play at this level.
The next step in trying to stop Doncic is a team like the Raptors, who know a thing or two about defensive stars.
Does Toronto have a chance to do it? It’s time to break it down.
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How did Luka Doncic perform against the Raptors?
Good enough.
Doncic has played eight times for the Raptors to this point in his career. His averages in those duels? 27.6 points, 10.0 rebounds and 8.3 assists on 49% shooting from the field and 31.6% from three.
The Slovenian lost his first two meetings against the Raptors, but is 5-1 since then.
Can anyone stop Luka Doncic?
Not really.
Doncic is almost immune to any opponent at this point in his career.. If he gets in front of someone small, he’ll outwork him in the low post, where he’s leading the NBA in scoring so far this season. If she’s paired with a big man, she’ll expose him before sitting him out with a step back or a lip rip.
The problem is that doubling up on Doncic opens up a huge range of possibilities for the Slovenian. Arguably the best passer in the NBA right now and he does things that make you think he has eyes in the back of his head.
With Doncic on the floor this season, the Mavericks are scoring 116.9 points per 100 possessions. That would rank as the third best offense in the entire league behind only the Celtics and Kings. It’s not like he’s surrounded by a bunch of nobody, but Doncic is posting one of the highest usage rates we’ve ever seen.
So not only is he putting up incredible individual numbers, he’s running a historically good offense.
Why the Raptors are the best team to defend Luka Doncic
It is possible that no team will be stopped Doncic never again, but Toronto has better conditions than most to make it possible.
On the one hand, the predators they have one of the most creative coaches in the NBA as it is Nick Nurse, who has shown in the past that he’s not afraid to throw anything at the wall to see what sticks. Double marks, shifts, zones or mixed defenses such as playing one box and one to limit a specific player.
Nurse threw a lot at Doncic in the first meeting between Toronto and Dallas this season. It didn’t stop him from adding 35 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assistsbut that says more about how good the Slovenian is than anything else.
Luka Doncic faced at least 11(!) different coverages against the Toronto Raptors on Friday night. It didn’t matter — Luka blew them all away.
Here’s how he did it: pic.twitter.com/W8EkmpBveK
—Eric Shapiro (@eric_shap) November 6, 2022
On the other hand, the Canadians have great size in their rotation. Almost everyone not named Fred VanVleet, Malachi Flynn or Gary Trent Jr. they are over 7 feet tall and have a huge wingspan. This helps when it comes to limiting Doncic’s chances.
Also, the Raptors don’t have many weak defenders for Doncic to “entertain”.
The last point is key. And is that the players are as ruthless as the former Real Madrid when it comes to exploiting imbalances or mismatches. Run as many pick-and-rolls as needed to force a turnover, then empty the field to attack him one-on-one.
It is important to mention that Doncic leads the league in low scoring. He has also scored more points than anyone else in a clean sheet. So letting him play his game is very risky, but once again, he’ll find the open man if opponents throw to him.
Ultimately, there is no right way to defend Doncic anymore. If he denies the score, he will give exposure as a passer. And if you force it otherwise it will break the stats. And it is that the Slovenian is on his way to do some numbers unusual for a long time.
All you can really hope for is that it sells out. And the Raptors are well positioned to do just that.
The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the NBA or its organizations.
