Luka Doncic with a triple-double against Denver: 38 PTS, 13 REB, 10 AST, 2 STL
Luka Doncic with a triple-double against Denver: 38 PTS, 13 REB, 10 AST, 2 STL, 3 TOV, 12-21 FG, 3-9 3P, 11-12 FT, 35 MIN
Lebron James 19/9/8 8-15 FG, +12 34min
https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401810472
Hello box score watchers, most of his FTs were intentional fouls at the end of the game.
If anything there were a few highly questionable and-1 non-calls.
Refs have been crazy inconsistent with continuation calls this year.
Bb…but he has a -2 +/- he must be ass …… /s
Send him to the lakers for AD, Max Christie and a first. Wait….
This is like the 4th time I’ve heard this dumb joke today, and it’ll still never be as dumb as trading Luka to the Lakers for AD, Max Christie, and a first
I’ve seen enough. I think Lakers should trade him and sell high on him /s
Phew… was about to go off lol
They put him in Cade conversations im dead
Cade is excellent. But he’s done absolutely nothing in the playoffs and his only series there would arguably be Luka’s worst
Gotta do way more to leapfrog a player as good as Luka imo
People have started overrating the regular season a little. Even Jokic who’s probably gonna retire top 15, despite having some monster playoffs and being good in the playoffs doesn’t have the same playoff resume as the other top 10 guys.
People have always overrated the regular season IMO
True. Karl Malone has been in top 20 talks forever when he was a first round exit for most of his career.
If we were just looking at the regular season, he’d be a top 10 player ever.
Well that’s why those rankings are overall basketball career rankings and not only NBA or only reg/playoffs
He puts himself at the 12
Luka beat more 50+ win teams in one Playoffs run than Jokić did in multiple years combined. Context matters.
If context matters.. just out of curiosity.. where do you rank Kobe all time?
You’re right, context matters. In the one year of the 2020s where everyone was healthy, Jokic won the championship. In other years, the Nuggets (and Murray especially) have been plagued by injuries, and played through them in the playoffs sometimes, which of course resulted in subpar performances.
Wow, your narrative just fell flat on its face.
I mean the teams they faced weren’t the best but a ring is a ring so i don’t hate
Did it though?
Luka wasn’t healthy our finals year either. And we had been together for less than 6 months at that point
Lol luka entered the league a euro league champ and mvp. His entire life has been being the best. Uncomparable to even wemby
no one says Cade has the better career, not with Luka’s playoff success
but you can make an argument that Cade is just as good of a player with his defense and leadership. It’s not a one-off thing, Cade has shown progressive growth every season and now it’s culminating in a season-long #1 seed
Pistons are 5.5 games ahead of anyone else in the East for #1. They have the best record except for the reigning champions and the reigning MVP. No one’s leapfrogging him, but he’s that guy
Except he’s just not as good as luka is.
Man they said Cade is better because he plays “winning basketball.” Luka led a team to the damn finals.
Sure, but Luka had a team designed around him. The scheme was Luka ball-dominant player with 4 three and D players around him (except for Kyrie, who’s still an all-time offensive talent)
The Pistons were an all-time low team and not b/c of Cade obviously, while the Mavs had more talent
Give it two-three years and we could easily be calling Cade the better player. He’s a way better defender and Luka is a bit better on offense, but Cade is still a powerhouse.
Lmaooooo stop the copium man
Like you and the entire Lakers fandom try to convince yourselves all your problems are because of LeBron not retiring?
and that every superstar is going to find a way to LA, no matter what? You guys are the copium fanbase
except you need to realize that all the money you get from LeBron leaving or taking a paycut goes straight to Reaves. There’s hardly any upside
but keep talking about copium. We’re a lot closer to chip than you guys are. Top three players can’t even play defense
Blud when did you last win? 2004? Keep that hope up. You aint beating anyone in the West the next 5 years. You aint beating OKC and Spurs during that time and you need to make tough decisions down the road. Hell you wont even win against the Celtics.
And no, im not blaming Lebron. The Goat is still producing even at 41. The roster construction is the problem it is not balanced.
“two-three years” and “could easily be” and “a bit better on offense” funny
Cade scores 26 points a game and almost 10 assists a game, that’s very comparable…
all while Luka doesn’t play on the other side of the ball at all, you guys are braindead
When the argument falls into “this xx player plays defense” you know you’ve lost.
Is Cade comparable to Jokic too?
Why do you need 2-3 years if you want to compare apple to apple. Luka only got that team for a year and was traded off the next.
Weird to pick Cade out when others on here were trying to act like Luka wasn’t even top 3. Why not pick Wemby to say?
They put him in wemby conversations im dead
but wemby been hooping lately so I can’t really say this
Wemby’s last few games have not been it though.
he’s been amazing besides literally the game tonight but he still aint above luka
Oh i didn’t see his game against the rockets until now his games against the wolves and jazz were good though
Yeah overall he’s still amazing, I think it’s just a small slump. He’ll get over it in no time.
What. Wemby had an awful game today but before it he was 3-0 putting up more points than minutes while being the clear DPOY.
You know what, you’re right. Looking back at his stats they are pretty eye-popping. I was tunneling too much on the low-lights posted here.
Its OK I do that too. I feel like an Asian parent watching their kid not get an A. Wemby is so regularly good that when he’s cold it’s absolutely painful to watch.
Luka is both a proven playoff quantity and an investment for the future, something very very few players can say
Good boy
Anyone saying Luka isn’t top 3 is a fool
He’s not. He’s 4th. At the same time it’s a one spot difference lol.
Jokic, Giannis and Shai are better, but he’s definitely 4th.
I think you could argue giannis but 3⁄4 is about where i’d place him
not shai or giannis
If you have luka over shai get help. Giannis I don’t agree but fair enough.
I mean giannis jokic and sga exist, saying luka isn’t top 3 isn’t weird. Saying him not top 4 is where it start to be a hot take.
Luka not being top 5 is a very regular take recently
I do think the box score stats this season have made him look better than the eye test, compared to his time in Dallas. The defense has been worse, the 3 hasn’t been falling, and he seems more reliant on “hard” shots than he used to
yeah especially b/c Cade can easily end up being the better overall player within 2-3 years, if not sooner
dude’s picking on an all-star starter who’s in MVP discussions
What he say fuck me for?
uhhh I’m a Pistons fan, so I’m biased
but Cade can easily become a superior player and is well on his way
He’s a better leader and a wayyyy better defender. He’s someone you can rally around.
Luka’s better on offense by maybe one tier. He’s not tiers ahead
Cade is that guy. He just plays for Detroit so he doesn’t get the press he deserves
He’s tiers ahead my dude when it comes to clutch playoff games.
he hasn’t even gotten the chance to play in enough playoff games because of the talent around him
Look at Giannis. Two-time MVP and finals MVP, hell even a defensive player of the year
but he can’t do it on his own. Give it 2-3 years and we might be talking about Cade as the better player
Have you followed Mavs in earlier Doncic years? It was a lineup of Hardaway, Bullock & Powell. Luka single handedly dragged them into playoffs & even cruised through 1st & 2nd rounds. He would have done the same with the Pistons team Cade inherited.
Lol what press? Luka has been him since he is with the Mavs.
Luka 1 tier above Cade in offense? That’s a joke. Defense? You guys are box score watchers. Luka is okay in defense. He is below average sure. But he aint bad bad. He can held his own.
If they make a trade Luka for Cade 1 on 1. You are delusional if you dont take that.
People are way too harsh on him. It’s 100% people not watching the games cause even with the bad defense and low effort on some possessions, he gives the inverse on the offensive side. Sucks for him he got traded to team that doesnt cover his weaknesses like the other elite players
It’s people overrating 2-way players or trashing “defense-less” players. It’s become trendy (on this sub at least) to knock on players who aren’t exactly shutdown defenders. Which is fine, but if your player is expending so much energy being the literal offensive engine on the team, who cares if he misses a coverage or two during defensive rotations?
A dude who rates 8⁄10 in offense and 8⁄10 on defense is NOT better than a dude who is 5⁄10 on defense but is a 12⁄10 offensive savant. Is it better if Luka is a great defender? Of course it is! But that is not happening. That doesn’t mean he’s a bum (compared to some cookie-cutter 2-way player but can’t create offense) just because he isn’t a defensive juggernaut.
My favourite outcome of this phenomenon is people pretending defensive guys who have at best average offense are better than offensive superstars, as if they wouldn’t trade them 1-1 in a heartbeat. But they’re too busy trying to look smart rather than acknowledge the players they pretend to think are secretly better than Luka because of defense are worse.
One wrinkle here is that the Lakers absolutely need one (or two. Or three) of them cookie-cutter 2-way guys since we have an overabundance of offensive machines. That doesn’t mean those offensive phenoms are bums or lose value, it just means the roster is imbalanced. But the people who think they’re so smart would point to those players and say “they don’t play enough defense” like that is the problem. Roster construction is the real problem, not the fact that Luka doesn’t play defense.
No I agree they’re very valuable, every team wants a Derrick White or younger Klay just not if they have to have tons of responsibility
I think it’s very naive to blame 1 player for defense when the stats show that even a guy as bad as trae over most of his career only made the defense marginally worse(this year was outlier and low sample)
Yea basically every team would want Luka on their team… but if there was any team for which Luka would be questionable it would be the one with Lebron James and AR on it.
Completely agree.
Lakers tax
People on social media would rather bitch about a game they didn’t watch than actually watch the game. A slightly bad game from a star and its always pure misery and hate in the comments.
I’m starting to think people don’t even like to watch basketball and just want the drama.
It’s people on the media, too
Last night jaylen brown 30 pts game [50%ts, 4 turnovers and 2 assists] would be clowned if it was luka for example
I mean it took several seasons for Mavs to build around him like they did. Lakers are one year into their pivot from a defensive anchor big man to an offensive phenom PG. they’ll have a crazy amount of cap flexibility this offseason to really shape things around Luka.
Nah he and his fans should take it as a compliment. He has highest expectations, so he gets highest critique. Just like Lebron or any other superstar type player
His haters are gonna be quiet
Monster game
His haters don’t watch basketball, they’ll never be quiet unfortunately
love raptors fans. Always unbiased and telling it how they see it
Mainly OkC fans, which is very strange, they just won a chip but spend so much energy on Luka
Okc has the most insecure fan base in the league
Monster game ? to be honest, this is quite a normal stat line for him back in his Mavs days,
take the L on the way out
YESSIR
Yall gonna remember that Malone line forever huh lol
its a very easy comment to make after a win vs the nuggets, doesnt go deeper than that 🫡
I have to say, I do love this rivalry. I really hope it continues after LeBron is gone
As much as I want to agree, Jamal Murray going super Saiyan and making me regret my life choices literally every time we play cannot be good for my health.
Karl said that? Oh you mean that bum unemployed coach, my bad
Lol I didnt watch the game and just saw comments on here. Would have assumed he was like 2-20 for 5 points and 15 TOs based in what people were saying.
He actually had every to on both teams, it was his worst game as a nugget
Luka’s defensive rebounding is very underrated. He consistently secures tough boards in traffic against much bigger guys - it’s not like J Kidd (Nets) or Westbrook (OKC). A lot of strength, anticipation, and controlling space against bigger players
top 10 in steals as well.
That was one thing that surprised me when he first joined us.
He’s awful defensively, but the amount of steals he secures was surprising and is impressive.
Disagree that guys like Kidd/Westbrook didn’t get tough boards. Westbrook genuinely is a dominant offensive rebounder as a guard. I get yall didnt get a good experience with him, but he is great at grabbing boards.
Luka’s rebounding was huge tonight in the 4th though.
J Kidd on the Nets was one of my favorite players growing up, but man had a clear out for a lot of boards just to start the break.
Westbrook is different, guy has a crazy motor and a lot of his rebounds during his prime were pure athleticism and maniacal timing.
Not taking away from either, especially since they’re PG’s and Luka’s closer to a PF honestly lol. Just saying it’s a luxury to have Luka consistently grab boards more like a 4 against other bigs.
Yeah Russ in his MVP season averaged 2.2 contested rebounds per game, his contested rebound % was 21%
Luka averages 2.2 this season for a 30% contested rebound rate
Naturally as guards they both don’t get that many tough boards but both are capable when they need to
This actually isnt true at all his contested rebound rate is very low
His contested rebound rate is 30% for the year. By comparison, Giannis is 34%, Shai 25%, Ant 22%.
Funny enough, Luka averages 2.2 contested rebounds per game vs Giannis at 2.0.
Man that’s a lot of copy/paste.
im dead they tried to convince me he wasnt top 3 in the league
ready for downvotes given the post but he isn’t - Jokic, Shai, Giannis.
Luka is better than Shai and Giannis
Still a top 3 player in the league
Where do you rank Giannis?
4th but tbh they’re both right there and I don’t think anyone should get upset if they’re swapped with each other. The skill at the top is just so high. Too 4 at least
After jokic and before doncic
IMO, it’s Jokic then Shai=Giannis=Luka
If I’m being real, this is probably how I see it, too. I do think Luka’s ceiling is higher than Giannis and Shai, though. And it’s hard to compare just because Shai and Giannis actually play a well-rounded game (offensively and defensively). Luka is a bit underrated in defense, imo, but he’s a bit behind the other two (which he clearly makes up for, offensively).
People are underrating Luka this season because the Lakers have a pitful roster around him that don’t play to his strengths at all
Currently but in 2 years peak Luka will clear everyone
Top 2 and it might not be 2
Hell no
Give him Pilgeous’s defensive cast and he’s squashing 73-9 btw
Shai is having one of the most efficenct seasons for a guard ever btw and actually shows effort on defense
His efficiency is heavily due to one of the best supporting casts ever assembled. The difference between him and Luka on defense is like 1 point per 100 in every metric you can find lol
Lol what is it with y’all Luka and SGA fans giving some of the worst take when it comes to the opposite player. SGA is a much more efficient player bro there is no argument
There is a very strong argument that you conveniently choose to ignore. Make SGA play his minutes next to Gabe Vincent and Jarred Vanderbilt and I promise you that efficiency won’t hold up.
SGA in 2022-23 averaged 31/5/5 on 51/35/90, while sharing the court with Poku for 495 mins and JRE 433 mins
Ah yes classic, using FG%/3FG% splits for a player with a 3PT attempt rate of 12.2%.
He had an eFG of 53% that year, worse than every season of Luka’s career except his rookie year and the Nico Harrison incident.
Yup very easy to tell who is better, swap them and OKC becomes invincible and lakers get worse
MEET IF MAN
OKCs historic defense is due in part to us not having anyone to attack in a mismatch. Luka would not afford OKC the same approach
Not really that strong of an argument if it’s a hypothetical but alright
Dawg 😂
You do realize Shai also has a bad offensive supporting cast, right? Him, Ajay, and Aaron Wiggins are the only actual shot creators on the team, and the latter two are very streaky unless they get open lanes. Luka has LeBron James and Austin Reaves, and he still had shabby efficiency during that.
You need to understand: SGA’s benefit from his teammates comes largely from defense. Do you think him getting double-teamed, passing into a wide open Caruso or Dort 15 times into 2⁄15 shooting is a major offensive help?
You do realize Shai also has a bad offensive supporting cast, right?
One of the biggest copes in NBA discourse right now.
Do you think him getting double-teamed, passing into a wide open Caruso or Dort 15 times into 2⁄15 shooting is a major offensive help?
Alex Caruso and Lu Dort are not terrible offensive players. If you think otherwise, you are incredibly spoiled as a basketball fan. And you’re just making up fake stats because you don’t have any actual evidence to substantiate your argument.
Luka has LeBron James and Austin Reaves, and he still had shabby efficiency during that.
Shai has Jalen Williams- top 25 in the league, a considerably better player than either James or Reaves- and yet they play terribly together. Ball dominant stars and ball dominant second options don’t always mesh as you’ve no doubt noticed watching your own team.
Lmfao Shai in 2023 without Chet Dub or any of the other role players you think are carrying him was more efficient than the most efficient Luka season in record.
Loud and wrong, .531 eFG is worse than every season of Luka’s career but two
He hasn’t won shit yet. Come on.
Ah yes, time to pull out the rangz argument for a 26yo who was drafted by a terrible FO and traded to another one. Fans like you are why ring culture and superteams exist btw
Jokic has 3 MVPs. Luka has 0.
Top 2
Healthy Jokic is the one player I’ll say is better than Luka. He’s also currently not healthy and who knows how he’ll play when he gets back.
I’ll never forgive the Luka disrespect based off a few months of him not being as good as he usually is! Top 4 no debate (at absolute worst) and always was. Stop changing your top 4 every 2 weeks!
This defense you’re seeing now is his usual. Don’t believe the overblown narratives
They are only 4 games back from the #2 seed and people act like they’re bums, Oklahoma is having a phenomenal season and outside of that they are still only 4 games back from 2 seed and without Austin,
“Not good as he usually is” is still a top 5 player in the league😂 Nobody has set a higher bar this young since Lebron
Monster game by Don, single handedly closed the Lakers in on that 3rd quarter, carried the shit out of the team tonight
#MVP
Lakers team MVP for sure… lol
lmfao
As a Doncic hater I must admit this was his best game in a while IMO
He looked awesome. Very 2023 Luka.
He’s had great games all season, the team around him just isn’t very good.
Put some respect on his name
When Luka’s name come up respek it. I ain’t gon say it no mo.
You finished or you done?
Not bad for a guy who everyone claims is really bad at basketball! I am not a big Luka fan but maybe people on social media and on Reddit will be quiet for at least a few hours. The conversation is just crazy surrounding Luka, he has his flaws and some of the criticism is fair, but it is so over the top people forget Luka is a good basketball player.
He went from slightly overrated to becoming comically underrated by people. He is clearly a top 30 player ever. Never seen a guy mix Euro ball with American street ball like him. Incredibly unique style and he does it with forward size.
I never thought luka was overrated, but even if people do think Luka is slightly overrated, I do agree with you it has gotten so crazy the other way that he is now significantly underrated.
I don’t really think he is overrated either, but I remember in the early days when people loved him he was getting Lebron comparisons. He had slight top 10 all time energy for a couple years.
You are right I do remember people saying that. I did forget early on in luka doncic career that people were saying he could be a top 10 all time player,instead of just letting his career play out. I can’t criticize people too badly because I have done the same with Wemby. And that is setting up players to be seen as overrated and criticized.
Luka Legend
3 TOV let’s gooooooo!!!!! Keep those numbers down boi!!!
Turns out Luka is still pretty good at basketball
(MOSTLY) GOOD DEFENSE
INCREDIBLE OFFENSE
WHERE ARE THE HATERS AT NOW?
[deleted]
I THINK those count as team TOs
Team TO so nah
Jamal Murray 2 points in the second half while hunting him is more important. And that of course wasn’t all Luka but it shows how important team defense and execution is. The doubling and rotations from all the role guys were crisp and they stifled everything Denver was trying to do.
Great coaching by JJ and same goes for the execution by the players
Wait yall are done giving him shit? 😂
Cinema of a game
Didnt Luka suck and is the main Lakers problem this year
How is he not even in consideration for MVP bro
The guy averaged 34/10/9 on a team that went to the NBA Finals and got one vote out of 100. Realistically he’d have to average somewhere around 40/15/15 to get serious consideration.
What does going to the finals have to do with a regular season award
I think voters now have graduated from PRA is everything and trend more towards advanced stats and wins, whether right or wrong it’s how it’s worked.
I will say though Luka has comfortably separated himself from every other non-SGA candidate (assuming Jokic disqualifies).
That team was injured to shit and not great overall until the trade deadline. Averaged 38/9/11 for 2 months to keep them alive and post trade deadline they were clearly the best team in the west.
Being the best player on a #1⁄2 seed is great but there’s context, if you don’t think he deserved MVP that year that’s fine but it should’ve been a 51⁄49 vote split between Jokic and Luka, instead he came away with 1 1st place vote and ended up 3rd.
People tend to only give you the MVP if your team is good and going to the NBA Finals is evidence that his team was good
Yes, we have gone away from the Dark Ages where we looked at statistics of things you can do on a basketball court as evidence of whether you are good at basketball. Now in our Enlightened Age we have outsourced the question of who should win MVP to www.dunksandthrees.com.
His team was good, but the other candidates teams were better. My comment more about how I don’t think there’s any points/rebounds/assists thresholds he needs to cross as his are already historic, it’s the other stuff I mentioned that’s keeping him from winning it for now. Some of it isn’t his fault, but it is what it is.
He has to be efficent what dont yall understand
Wasn’t he 48,38,78 that year? I think he made the second most threes that season behind Steph.
I meant this year that year he was goated
Oh my bad, I thought you meant in general. Because yeah, in 24 dude turned into a Goddamn sniper.
Jokic was considered the favorite(pre-injury) and Luka wasn’t even mentioned even though their team records weren’t even that far apart.
Because SGA has a team thats going to win 60 games and should have a gap to 2nd place
He’s third in the latest MVP ladder behind Shai and Jokic, I’m sure he will overtake Jokic soon, I’d definitely say he’s in contention
Hard to beat a great superstar on a stacked team like Shai though
They tried telling me he was washed
Nuggets were on the menu tonight 🍽️
MVP here
Monster game throughout. The rest of the lakers woke up a bit more in the second half but he kept them alive in the first almost on his own
His downfall has been greatly exaggerated
Absolutely took over in the 3rd. One man offense to get them back in the game.
remember we had dlo with 4pts vs the nuggets
Luka is the greatest player in the league.
Except jokic
Whoa, 32 bench points!
38 point triple double and nobody even bats an eye is how great Luka is
Also the 3pt percentage vs FT percentage stat for Luka remains true😂😂
MVP
The way this sub and all those podcasts have been talking about Luka, you’d expect he’s been terrible all season.
Luka in a shooting slump was only comparable to other player’s best version of their careers, just shows how Luka is still a tier above everyone not names Jokic, Giannis or SGA
Luka is good offensively, nothing new there.
He’s also a turnstile on defense (even in this game), complains constantly to the refs even when he gets calls (like on this game which resulted in a tech), overall has bad body language when things aren’t going his way, and runs out of gas at the end of games (tbf I don’t think this happened tonight).
ggs.
Flopper
Generational
Whiner
Best in the world.
No defense.