Luka Doncic works on his shot after loss to Hornets

In their first home game of the season, the Dallas Mavericks were rocked by the Charlotte Hornets to the tune of a 118-99 final score. The game was particularly ugly.

Luka Doncic, the Mavericks star, didn’t have a good night. He finished with 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting, 0-of-5 on three-pointers, two rebounds, five assists, two steals, three turnovers, and a minus-27.

So far this season, Doncic hasn’t looked like the MVP-caliber player he looked like in the bubble. After the loss to the Hornets, head coach Rick Carlisle said, “It’s clear Luka doesn’t have his rhythm yet.”

“I don’t know. I think my legs are really tired, but that’s not an excuse,” Doncic said. “I don’t think it’s the problem. Obviously the problem was shooting today.”

To work on his rhythm and his shot, Doncic appeared back on the court Wednesday night a little while after the final buzzer sounded.

Doncic worked his way around the floor, taking corner threes, midrange jumpers, shots of cuts, post moves, shots from the elbow, and everywhere in between for nearly an hour. He put in enough work that sweat began to stain the front and back of his t-shirt.

“Get shots up,” Doncic said about how he improves going forward. “Obviously, I’ve got to do way better. I’m 21 and in my third season, I can improve so much. So, I’ve got to work on those shots every day and if you work on it, they’re going to fall in eventually. That’s my point of view.”

Hopefully, the extra work on the floor will pay dividends in the next game.

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Update Dec. 31, 1:08 a.m.: This post was updated to include quotes by Luka Doncic.