Luka, magic

There's something about inevitability.

Josh Brolin said it best while masquerading as the Mad Titan, Thanos: "Dread it, run from it...destiny still arrives."

Inevitability is hard to describe. The knowledge that no matter what happens, the final outcome is predestined. The feeling grasps one's mind like an inescapable vise grip.

As the ball left Luka Dončić's hands, cleared Reggie Jackson's outstretched hand and hung in the air on its way to the rim, its destination felt inevitable. On one healthy ankle, sans his 7-foot-tall all-star running mate in Kristaps Porzingis, Luka felt inevitable Sunday afternoon.

Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle expressed it best, saying that Luka "sees the game in 6G," a clever line with "AT&T 5G" plastered across the backdrop behind his head.

When the Mavericks spotted the Los Angeles Clippers a 21-point lead in the second quarter, a rally felt inevitable. When Dallas raced out to a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter and subsequently allowed the second-seeded Clippers to mount their own rally, it felt meaningless in the grand scheme of the afternoon.

Dončić's buzzer-beating game-winner gave him 43 points in Sunday's game four. His 17 rebounds and 13 assists cemented him as only the third player in NBA history with at least 40 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in a playoff game. His peers on the list include only Oscar Robertson and Charles Barkley.

The former EuroLeague MVP showcased his entire arsenal Sunday afternoon: dizzying eurosteps, masterful ball-handling and unguardable stepback three-pointers, including the one that sealed the series-tying victory for Dallas. When it was all over, the Mavericks' franchise centerpiece had completed an all-time dominant playoff performance, renewing hope for his seventh-seeded squad in its matchup against a Clippers team many believe to be the favorites to win the NBA Finals in October.

Few players have looked as dominant and in control of the game at the age of 21 as Dončić has all season, especially since arriving in the NBA Bubble in Orlando a month ago. Someday, years in the future, analysts of the game might look back on Sunday afternoon's goliath performance as the launching point of one of the greatest careers in the history of the NBA.

At the risk of sounding like a prisoner of the moment, that outcome almost feels...inevitable.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox.