{"id":195472,"date":"2025-07-26T10:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T10:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/195472\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T10:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T10:11:12","slug":"kyrie-irving-recalls-luka-doncics-ruthless-practice-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/195472\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyrie Irving Recalls Luka Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s Ruthless Practice Takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA fans know Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a> as a walking highlight reel. But according to Kyrie Irving<\/a>, one of Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s most jaw-dropping performances didn\u2019t happen under arena lights; it happened at practice.<\/p>\n

During a recent Twitch stream, Irving described the moment in disbelief: \u201cI witnessed him give somebody 24 points in three minutes.\u201d <\/p>\n

The story wasn\u2019t new to Mavericks reporters, but hearing Irving confirm it added fuel to a growing legend.<\/p>\n

Grant Williams<\/a> Got the Smoke from Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/p>\n

Irving referenced an unnamed teammate who was already named by Mavericks assistant GM Michael Finley<\/a> last year:\u00a0Grant Williams.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williams joined Dallas last summer via sign-and-trade from the Boston Celtics. According to Finley, Williams had been talking trash during a scrimmage, trying to get under Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s skin.<\/p>\n

\u201cA player in our team, I won\u2019t call his name out, but it was Grant Williams, who decided he wanted to get under Luka\u2019s skin. He thought Luka didn\u2019t come that day ready to practice,\u201d\u00a0Finley said,\u00a0\u201cTo make a long story short, we had a scrimmage going, and he\u2019s talking trash to Luka up and down the court. So, finally, Luka says, \u2018Okay.\u2019 And I tell you, Luka went on a 26-6 run by himself. You can ask anybody. I\u2019m not exaggerating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple witnesses backed up the account. No words. No celebration. Just surgical dominance\u2014deep threes, post fades, floaters. It ended with coaches calling the scrimmage early.<\/p>\n

Williams didn\u2019t last long in Dallas. He was traded midseason to Charlotte, and that practice session is remembered less as a motivational moment and more as a cautionary tale: don\u2019t test Don\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n

New Chapters in Dallas and L.A.<\/p>\n

Since then, everything has shifted. Don\u010di\u0107, in his seventh season in Dallas, was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster three-team deal that sent Anthony Davis<\/a> to the Mavericks. Don\u010di\u0107 is expected to sign a massive extension<\/a> with L.A., setting him up as the franchise centerpiece moving forward.<\/p>\n

Kyrie Irving<\/a>, meanwhile, is recovering from a torn ACL that ended his 2024\u201325 season. Despite the injury, Dallas extended him on a three-year, $119 million deal, confident he can help lead a retooled roster featuring Davis and No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg<\/a>. He\u2019s expected back early in 2026.<\/p>\n

But even as both stars move into new phases, that three-minute explosion lives on, an untelevised masterpiece of what happens when a superstar flips the switch. <\/p>\n

Latest NBA News & Rumors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA fans know Luka Don\u010di\u0107 as a walking highlight reel. But according to Kyrie Irving, one of Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,1439,967,150,368,166,1320,13147,6,3101],"class_list":{"0":"post-195472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-dallasmavericks","12":"tag-grant-williams","13":"tag-kyrie-irving","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-luka-doncic","16":"tag-mavericks","17":"tag-mavericks-news","18":"tag-michael-finley","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nba-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114919000169702895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}