Painful truth about Luka Doncic continues to cost the Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks lost a debilitating contest on Thursday night against the Utah Jazz by a score of 115-113, as it was the Mavericks' fourth consecutive clutch loss. The Mavericks were without Kyrie Irving and P.J. Washington in this game due to injuries, but this still doesn't excuse dropping the ball to a Jazz team that was 2-8 heading into this game, especially considering how much better Dallas' personnel is compared to Utah on paper.

The Mavericks point-of-attack defense suffered all night long in this game, as Utah's most prominent guard trio of Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton, and Keyonte George scored a combined 50 points on 19-38 shooting from the field. Dallas struggled to create shots in the third quarter and had 17 turnovers in this game too, which was definitely a huge factor toward Utah being able to take control of this game in the second half.

However, the Mavericks clawed their way back from a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit behind some spirited defensive play from Naji Marshall and Jaden Hardy, and Klay Thompson hit a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer with 27.1 seconds left to tie the game at 113-113.

This ended up not mattering though, as Luka Doncic was caught lacking defensively on the ensuing possession. Clarkson was dribbling the ball at the top of the arc trying to waste some clock before attempting a shot that would've been near the end of the shot clock, but out of nowhere, he zipped a pass to John Collins for a wide-open dunk right under the rim. Collins was Doncic's man, as Doncic was caught ball-watching and looking at Mavericks assistant coach Sean Sweeney instead of being engaged defensively.

Doncic's defensive struggles continue to haunt the Mavs

While this play sealed the victory for the Jazz, it wasn't the only possession of the game that Doncic played lackluster from a defensive perspective. Doncic was getting blown by routinely all evening, and even had a play earlier in the fourth quarter where he simply neglected to guard Sexton on a routine mid-range pull-up.

Doncic had an efficient night from an offensive standpoint, filling in the void left by Irving by scoring 37 points on 13-25 shooting from the field, despite continued struggles from downtown. However, Doncic's defensive lapses were one of the main reasons Dallas ended up dropping this game, and this isn't the first time Doncic's defense has come into question by fans and the media.

Doncic's effort on defense has fluctuated throughout most regular season games he's played with Dallas, and we've seen him turn his effort down a few notches in instances where Dallas is playing lesser opponents. On the flip side, Doncic has proven the ability to anchor down and play some elite defense in big-time matchups, such as Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs against the LA Clippers last postseason.

Thursday night was definitely a case of the former, and Doncic hasn't had a game this season that has been eye-popping when it comes to his defense. It's been long known by Mavericks fans that Doncic expends a heavy workload on the offensive end, but the Mavericks can't afford for him to have games where he is a complete liability defensively like this, especially since he's been average on that end for most of the season so far.

Mavericks fans have long awaited for the time that Doncic crosses the territory of becoming an above-average defender, and it looked like he was trending in that direction toward the end of last season. However, this seems like a case of Doncic taking one step forward and two steps back, as the Mavericks have now fallen to 5-7 in large part due to his horrendous defense against the Jazz.