Luka Doncic cooked Rudy Gobert on the court, and then trash talked him on Inside the NBA
Luka Doncic roasted Rudy Gobert so hard on the court on Friday night that itâs already becoming a meme, but he might have burned him to a crisp even harder off of it after leading his Dallas Mavericks to a 109-108 comeback win over Gobertâs Minnesota Timberwolves.
On a switch in the fourth quarter with Dallas trailing by just two points, Doncic hunted Gobert on a switch, eventually getting the reigning Defensive Player of the Year on skates to the degree that Reggie Miller described it on the broadcast as âdancing with the stars.â After sending Gobert stumbling with just seconds remaining in the game, Doncic knocked down a three to take a lead his team wouldnât relinquish in order to take a 2-0 advantage in the series.
After the clutch bucket, Luka â never shy about talking trash â let Rudy know how he really felt:
If these results hold, Doncicâs triumphant scream amidst Gobertâs steely-eyed stare off into space â seemingly already having visions of how badly the internet was going to cook him over Luka making a-still-insanely-tough shot â might go down as the defining image of the 2024 Western Conference Finals:
Now, Luka claimed after the game that he didnât actually tell Gobert âyou canât f—ing guard me,â insisting he was speaking in Slovenian. However, nothing was lost in translation with what he had to say on television, as Luka wasnât done fileting Gobert when the action on the court wrapped up.
He was less profane, but somehow even meaner, during a postgame interview with the âInside the NBAâ crew, where he and Shaq laughed at Gobertâs Defensive Player of the Year status before Luka described their matchup about as brutally as he possibly could have while still being self-effacing.
âI canât move fast, but I can move faster than him,â Doncic said.
Weâll see if this bit of celebrating can be something the Wolves rally around as this series heads back to Dallas, but at least for the next few days, itâs going to be a rough time to be Rudy Gobert.
Almost as rough as being switched onto arguably the best player in the world with the game on the line. Almost.