Booker Mocks with 'The Luka Special' in Game 5

On May 10, 2022, the Phoenix Suns hosted the Dallas Mavericks for Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals at Footprint Center. Midway through the action, Devin Booker drove and was fouled by Dorian Finney-Smith. As officials initiated a review—later upgrading the play to a flagrant-1 on Finney-Smith—Booker remained on the floor. Looking toward a nearby fan recording the scene, he quipped with a smile, “The Luka special,” a line captured on video and quickly amplified by local and national outlets [1][2][4][5]. The comment alluded to Luka Doncic’s ability to draw contact and dramatize fouls, and it resonated instantly in the game’s charged atmosphere. The Suns went on to win comfortably, 110-80, taking a 3-2 series lead on their home floor [1][4]. Coverage from The Dallas Morning News documented Booker’s audible jab—“The Luka Special”—as he was helped up, noting the flagrant-1 ruling and the Suns’ subsequent pull-away [1]. The Arizona Republic/Yahoo account likewise described Booker turning over and delivering the line while smiling, then later laughing with teammates on the bench as the flagrant-1 was confirmed [4]. Sports Illustrated’s aggregation embedded social clips of the remark, while ESPN’s later timeline reiterated that Booker said it while acknowledging a fan filming the moment [2][5]. Beyond the one-liner, the incident showcased a theatrical edge in a high-stakes game and put a quotable tag on a rivalry that had, until then, mostly been about matchups and results. The meme-ready phrase—short, pointed, and perfectly timed—gave fans and media an anchor for the Suns–Mavs discourse that would follow within days [1][2][4][5].

Booker’s “The Luka special” turned routine playoff physicality into a personal, quotable flashpoint, giving the Suns–Mavs series a viral focal point and defining how fans framed Luka Doncic’s style of play [1][2][4][5]. In a single moment, Booker shifted the rivalry from quiet competitiveness to overt, camera-caught trash talk—fuel that would carry into subsequent games and seasons. The quip also established a pattern: short, memeable lines—later echoed by Doncic’s “Everybody acts tough when they’re up” and the 2023 nose-to-nose exchange—would shape the narrative as much as the box score [2][3][6]. For Phoenix, it was swagger in a blowout win and a 3-2 series lead. For Dallas, it was a receipt to be answered five days later in Game 7, ensuring the line remained part of the rivalry’s lore regardless of the series outcome [2].

The day after Booker’s remark, cameras captured Luka Doncic walking off the court in Phoenix saying, “Everybody acts tough when they’re up,” a clear rejoinder that gained wide circulation via ABC15 and national aggregators [2][5]. Five days after the “Luka special,” Dallas returned to Phoenix and blasted the Suns 123-90 in Game 7, with Doncic scoring 35 and matching the Suns’ first-half point total with 27. A smirk from Doncic near Booker became a widely shared image, symbolizing Dallas’ emphatic answer on the scoreboard [2]. The verbal back-and-forth established in May 2022 set the stage for March 5, 2023 in Dallas, when the rivalry produced its most combustible on-court confrontation: Doncic barked, “Shut the f--- up!” at Booker, both drew double technicals, and each delivered postgame barbs that kept the saga in headlines [3][6]. Even in later seasons, the dynamic lingered—seen in a charged 2024 matchup and a 2025 Booker tweet—underscoring how one mic’d-up moment in 2022 became a recurring frame for Mavericks–Suns storylines [7][8].