• NBA.Historical record and defeat of a Doncic penalized by the rigorous expulsion of Porzingis

Since making his debut with Real Madrid at the age of 16, Luka Doncic has visited the P3 or Peak Performance Project, a high-performance center in California where they study all kinds of biometric data from elite athletes: biomechanics, athletic ability, risk of injury ... There they know their body to the millimeter and have oriented their training to exploit its advantages. The information they collect is so valuable that before the 2018 draft an NBA team tried to buy the Slovenian's data. At first glance Doncic does not stand out for his athleticism. It does not have a big jump, nor is it very fast, but in P3 they discovered advantages under the surface: deceleration and eccentric force. In other words, Doncic has an unusual ability to stop quickly and make explosive changes of direction without losing his balance. In those metrics, their values ​​are similar to those of James Harden, the star in the image of the one who shapes his game.

The movement that best combines these two advantages is the step-back , a dribble where the player threatens a step forward, followed by an immediate jump back to launch over the boat. It is an unpredictable way to gain distance with the defender in very little space. And it is no coincidence that the two who use this resource the most are Harden and Doncic.

The elite sport lives its particular race in space: teams are investing more and more money in collecting and processing data to decide transfers and strategies. The model case of the NBA is the Houston Rockets and specifically Harden , who has become one of the most prolific scorers in modern history. Doncic follows a similar path to La Barba: he has redesigned his shooting selection according to the pattern of advanced statistics, looking for the most efficient areas of the field to score. The most drastic improvement is in the restricted area. 25.6% of Doncic's shots in his rookie year came under the rim. This course is 30.4%. And the most surprising thing is the success: it has gone from putting 62% to 72.6%. Among the 10 most effective players under the basket, there are only two who are not centers: the MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo , and Doncic.

The Slovenian is the second player who penetrates the basket the most (20.7 times per game, compared to Russell Westbrook's 20.8) and one of those who produces the most in these actions: 62.5% finish in points. When the defense has to be on the lookout for a 2.21 pivot who can shoot three like Kristaps Porzingis , gaps open up in the paint that Doncic is knowing how to exploit. Now he also shoots much less from medium distance, the least efficient shot: if any shot in the NBA generates 1.06 points for each attempt, in that area they only produce 0.81.

A historical record

If last year Doncic tried 11.3% of his shots there, this year they are only 4.6%. In many actions where he used to get up from five or six meters, now he continues to the basket. Doncic is already one of the best attackers in the NBA but he has room for improvement. Starting with the triple, with only 31.6% (the league average is 35.8%). He is penalized for throwing in difficult situations (70.2% are after three or more pots), although the benefit of shooting that much continues to compensate him: he scores enough to keep defenses on alert.

«I made a terrible game. He should never lose 11 balls. That's 11 possessions. Go figure". Anyone who only saw Doncic's statements after the Dallas loss would never think that he had broken the all-time scoring record of a playoff rookie: 42 points that allowed the Mavs to endure to the end against the Clippers, a true title contender. He beat George Mikan (37), Abdul-Jabbar (36), Chamberlain (35). At his age, only LeBron James and Magic Johnson had scored 40 points. He is only 21 years old and it is already so common to see his name linked to historical achievements that he runs the risk of becoming routine, although his analysis of the game did not lack some reason: yes, he lost too many balls (most in the first minutes) and an oversight of his in defense allowed the triple that decided the crash.

As true as that, after a disastrous start, he took over the game and came to command a partial 48-16 (110-118, in the end). Clippers coach Doc Rivers defines it as a mix of Larry Bird's scoring with Jason Kidd's vision of the game .

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