Luka Doncic and Devin Booker clearly have whatever the opposite of a bromance is.
The two stars exchanged words at the end of Sunday’s Dallas Mavericks-Phoenix Suns game. Doncic missed a bunny that would have tied the game at 128 and got right up in Booker’s face after Booker taunted him over it.
Luka and D-Book got chippy after Luka missed the game-tying shot 😳 https://t.co/lyyhC6ni6J
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 5, 2023
Doncic and Booker were given double technical fouls over the dust-up. Phoenix held on to win the game 130-126.
The Mavs star Doncic continued his trash talk for Booker in the postgame press conference. Doncic called out Booker for waiting until the game was in the bag for the Suns before he started yapping.
Luka Doncic: “It’s a competitive game. It’s all good. Next time, just don’t wait until there’s three seconds left to talk.”
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) March 5, 2023
For his part, Booker said that he welcomed the “smoke” from Doncic.
"You guys say you don't want everybody to be friendly friendly. There you go. We got some smoke."
Devin Booker on his exchange with Luka Doncic late in #Suns win over #Mavs pic.twitter.com/jI0ygEr27C
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) March 5, 2023
While Booker finished with 36 points on an efficient 15-for-25 from the field, it was new Suns teammate Kevin Durant who did most of the heavy lifting late in the game. Durant scored seven crucial points in the final three minutes of the contest, including the go-ahead jumper with 12.1 seconds left (immediately before Doncic’s miss).
You may also recall that Booker and the Suns got thoroughly embarrassed by Doncic and the Mavs in last year’s playoffs. Thus, Booker might want to pump the brakes a bit on trash-talking Doncic over a regular season victory.
