Hernangómez knows Doncic comes to play

History dates back to their teen years in Spanish league

They were a couple of teenagers doing what teenagers do, hanging out and playing video games and taking life as it comes.

But even then, killing time between games in the Spanish basketball league nearly a decade ago, Juancho Hernangómez knew there was something special about his buddy, Luka Doncic.

“When we used to play video games; he’s the same guy,” Hernangómez said of Doncic, the Dallas Mavericks star who makes his lone Toronto appearance of the NBA season on Saturday evening. “He’s really competitive, and one thing you cannot do is try to laugh at him or something.”

The 27-year-old Hernangómez, in his first season with the Raptors, saw it when Doncic was a teenager, just starting his career. The rest of the world knows it now that Doncic is considered one of the best players on the planet.

“When he gets (fired up), he’s tough to guard,” Hernangómez said. “He’s got God’s gift of talent … and you know he’s going to make the last shot and gonna do tricky shots — shoot it from half-court and make it. That’s how he is.”

The two became close when Doncic was in his mid-teens and just starting his professional career, having moved to Spain from his native Slovenia. Doncic would become a teammate of Hernangómez’s brother, Willy, with the legendary Real Madrid team. Juancho was just starting his own career with the Madrid-based Estudiantes and they became fast friends. Mostly by just being kids.

“We loved hanging out, playing

video games, being outside, doing barbecues, being in the pool, so we became friends,” Hernangómez said. “Hanging out after his game, after my game, we hang out all summer. He loves Spain; he grew up there. He was fluent in Spanish. He loved Spanish food.”

Doncic, now 23, shone as a teen in the highly regarded Spanish league, an internship that more than prepared him to dominate the NBA at times. He was a EuroLeague champion with Real Madrid in 2018, when he was also most valuable player in both the EuroLeague season and its Final Four tournament.

Along the way, he spent summers playing for the Slovenian national team and led that side to a EuroBasket gold medal in 2017, registering a semifinal win over Spain along the way.

“As soon as we (got to) know him, he did different things (from) other kids,” Hernangómez said. “I didn’t know he was going to be top one, top three in the world … we didn’t know he was going to be that good. We thought he could be an all-star, but he got way better and I’m happy for him. He worked hard, he deserves it. He’s a good kid.”

At times this season, the six-footseven, 230-pound Doncic has been unstoppable. He enters Saturday averaging 34 points, nine rebounds and 8.1assists per game with the 9-8 Mavericks. He isn’t blessed with the greatest of supporting casts, but has a way of knowing what each game needs. He had 35 points, eight rebounds and six assists in a 111-110 win over Toronto earlier this season in Dallas.

Trying to stop Doncic will be more difficult for the Raptors because they’ve already ruled out Scottie Barnes (knee), Pascal Siakam (groin), Precious Achiuwa (ankle), Otto Porter Jr. (foot) and Justin Champagnie (back), while Fred VanVleet (illness) and Dalano Banton (ankle) are both questionable.

It’s easy to suggest O.G. Anunoby is the logical defender to stick on Doncic, but that’s always how it works.

“I think it makes it hard to do that only because of, what happens if O.G.’s not out there, subs out … you’ve got to be careful because he’s our absolute number one option on offence right now, too,” coach Nick Nurse said.

“So, will he have his moments where we let him guard him? Yeah, I would imagine so, but we’ll have lots of schemes put in to do some things.”

And lots of schemes for Doncic to figure out.