The Jazz beat the Mavericks on John Collins’ game-winning dunk, thanks to statuesque defense by Luka Dončić

Luka Dončić has never exactly been a contender for the all-defensive teams, but his work on defense Thursday represented a low point for one of the best young players in the NBA, despite another brilliant game on offense.

The situation: a tie game with 10 seconds left between the Dallas Mavericks and the Utah Jazz. Klay Thompson had just tied the game on a 3-pointer with 27 seconds left, and the ball was in Jordan Clarkson’s hands at the top of the arc.

Dončić was assigned to guard Jazz forward John Collins. He lined up between Collins and the ball and waited. And waited. And – well, let’s see what happened.

Dončić, for some reason focused on the already guarded Collin Sexton, and let Collins slip past him for the most open crunch-time dunk you’ll ever see.

To be fair, it wasn’t a teaching tape for the rest of the Mavericks defense either. Big man Dereck Lively II stood on the other side of the paint, but might have been able to stop Collins if he had helped earlier. At least he could have gotten Collins to make another pass. Naji Marshall also could have done a better job covering Marshall’s pass.

The basket is still on Dončić. Modern NBA defenses are far, far more complicated than most fans realize, but the goal boils down to preventing a ballhandler from making the face Clarkson did when he saw that Dončić really wasn’t following Collins.

There might have been some redemption for Dončić on the next play when he fed the ball to an open Grimes in the corner, but Marshall, a career .307 3-point shooter, missed the potential game-winner.

Dončić took the blame for the defensive error while talking to reporters after the game:

Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd also blamed a miscommunication for the play:

However, it is unfair to paint Dončić as the reason the Mavericks lost. He might have had a defensive lapse, but he also had 37 points on 13-of-25 shooting with nine assists and seven rebounds. His career is built on his offensive brilliance making up for his lack of defense, and it’s arguable that’s what happened Thursday.

And yet that game also underscores what makes Dončić so frustrating. Collins didn’t score because he was faster than Dončić, or more skilled. He scored because Dončić lost track of his man with the game on the line and thought someone, Quentin Grimes, would save him, even though he was in an even worse position.

The loss drops the Mavericks to 5-7 on the season, which is not how you want to follow up an NBA Finals berth.