[Highlight] Short-Handed Suns target Luka Dončić on defense to seal a clutch win over the Lakers
Bron n luka Stans at war over this on X
That’s so sad for Luka stans ngl I don’t blame the losses on him but putting the same standards on a 41 year old for a 27 year old in their prime is crazy no matter what they want to say Bron has his lowest usage rate and Luka has his highest the suns are calling for switches onto HIM not the other way around that’s crazy imo
The reality is the team should be unequivocally be Luka’s and he shouldn’t even be able to get to switches like this.
Defensive schemes of lakers don’t reflect the reality of Luka’s defensive weaknesses and it’s a problem.
Luka should be playing how Lebron played on defense in his second Cavs stint.
What scheme are you going to run with Luka and Reaves sharing perimeter duties in a theoretical healthy closing lineup?
Same scheme that Jason Kidd was able to run with Luka and Kyrie sharing perimeter duties. You need two pretty good rim defenders and two 3nD wings who are great help defenders.
Will need to be extremely lucky in finding those wings and a center like the Mavs were but that’s why they brought in all the dodgers guys in their front office right?
I get what you meant but saying you need two 3&D wings and two rim defenders made me initially think you meant Kyrie and Luka needed 4 defenders aka 6 players on the floor at the same time to cover for their weaknesses lmao.
that 6th man floating around is going to be huge for the team
also the 6th guy needs to have 3 arms
If I understand correctly, you’re saying the Lakers can fix their defense by surrounding Luka and Reeves with two 3&D wings and two rim protectors? Sounds about right, honestly.
This is all easier said than done. Luka being terrible on defense makes it that much harder to build around him
Lebron when needed was still a better defender during that second Cavs stint than Luca has ever been.
Start of lakers LeBron was better defender than Luka has ever been…
Even this comparison is crazy disrespectful to LeBron. Luka has never come close defensively to 40 yo LeBron’s defense last year in the playoffs
WTH are you talking about. No one ever tried get Bron on switch. They will hunt Luka no matter the scheme. He’s not going to pre switch because that takes to much effort for him
Are you honestly saying Luka is anyway comparable to 2016 cavs bron on defense. Are you insane lmfao
Dumbest take I’ve ever seen. Luka is worse on defense than even 41 yo LeBron.
That 41 year old is getting paid just as much as the 27 year old so he better be able to hold the same amount of responsibility
I feel like anyone who knows ball should look at those defensive rotations and just wonder wtf Laravia is doing on most of these plays. He keeps over helping or starts to help then stops and it fucks up the rotations
Not completely excusing LaRavia because he’s lost on his own enough but part of it looks like he just doesn’t know what to expect because Luka and LeBron are so inconsistent with their defensive effort. If LaRavia had a lot of recoverability, he could kinda play in-between and get away with it but he’s a help defender that needs to decisively pick and action and he seems to have no idea when Luka is gonna be out of the play or when Luka can recover to stay with his man.
I mean Lebron is clearly overpayed and Luka is not eligible for what he is actually worth. The problem is they cant adjust Lebrons pay minute by minute, there was always going to come a time where he wasnt worth as much as his contract, thats just how they work.
you know what punctuation is, right?
And people say hes a better player to build around than Tatum, dont get me wrong hes a generational offensive talent but im taking Tatum all day long.
It doesn’t matter how old Bron is, he’s making like \(40 or \)50M per year so he needs to give that level of production.
Lakers chose to give him that contract knowing his age. Do you expect him to volunteer for a pay cut?
Couldn’t happen to a better group of people 8 )
Good
let them fight.
Hahahahahahahahahha
🍿
I love the play when Lebron comes over to get the block from behind but misses. Luka goes to the floor while Lebron stumbles. They pass to a wide up shot.
What a shame lol Luca didn’t even want to be there and LeBron is leaving in a few months anyway
Lakers are having a ton issues… not sure if they survive against anyone in a playoffs
Yeah what I see in these clips isn’t a single bad defender issue. Their team defense is just horrible, no communication, no one seems to know where to be, over helping, etc
Yea it’s hard because they know the offense will target Luka, so you are ready to help. But every once in a while, Luka decides to actually try for 3 seconds, but then once the ball handler gets past him, he gives up. So as the “help” defender, you think aight hes trying, locking down, wait why he stop, wait am I supposed to help, wait is he going to help cover my guy that just slipped out, wait hes not doing anything.
a hell of a description, gj
Exactly right.
Yeah they obviously have communication issues, not a great shooting and horrible team defense, i still dunno how are they in a playoff spot ngl
Austin carried the team while they were both out and Ayton was still drinking his crunk juice
Won a bunch of close games and they have the offensive firepower to win games where defense is optional.
Long term it isn’t a recipe for success… if they fall to the play-in the Spurs and Thunder will exploit the hell out of them with a balanced attack. If they stay at 6 Jokic will eat their bigs alive if Denver is there. But Houston is a strange matchup because they can be just as disconnected at times and Luka vs KD or LeBron vs Sengun as a “who is the hero tonight” matchup is probably close.
Who on the Lakers is a good defender this season? They’ve got Vanderbilt and who else?
Marcus Smart
I love Smart but he’s not the defender he used to be. He’s average at best at this point in his career and it kills me to say that.
Do they fire JJ Redick and Pelinka after this year?
JJ is still figuring it out.. but if bron is there next season he will also be there, Pelinka should have been fired after the westbrook trade
Pelinka almost definitely. JJ would need a revamped staffing coaches and figure out how to be more flexible, but he’s already very good in raising the floor of this flawed team.
Its beautiful ain’t it?
Lakers ceiling this playoffs is a first round upset of anyone.
Luka be going for them pump fakes man.
Bro has moon shoes on
Theres a few where he gets beat and a few where the team has some miscommunication on defense and is caught out of position. None of that looks like lack of effort or not trying on defense. Sure he’s not a good perimeter defender. He should ideally be defending weak side forwards. But he’s trying on these possessions.
It looks like they don’t even know what their scheme is in half of these. Especially the play where Lavaria stunts and Luka thinks he’s switching.
Ya honestly on what… 3 of these plays its just miscommunication with Jake specifically, theyre getting caught on switches and both rotating to the same guy.
We dont know their scheme so its unclear who’s fucking up in those instances tbh, but one of those guys blew the assignments for sure xd
It’s a lazy reaction. Easier to just jump and convince yourself that you’re defending than staying down and having to continue the possession. Not his fault in that he carries a big load on offense so understandably needs some plays off. Just sucks that our star player isn’t a two way guy.
AD is a two way guy, lets trade back?
How about Flagg for Luka straight up? Would you do that?
Virtually identical to me on 2k
Legit lol’ed when he flys by flailing on the pump fake
Its so wild to see someone have 160 iq on offense but 85 iq on defense
It’s mostly laziness
Well in this particular showing he is sprinting to the wrong area or drifting away from his man.
He actively looks like he isn’t sure where to go.
Is he basically the PF in this lineup and LeBron the C? Why are we in crunch time with no defensive paint presence? Why can’t this goddamn team get a Center?
Needs more Crunk Juice
Hey you got Ayton! He was a number one pick! 😁😘
Dude was hired to get rebounds and chew bubble gum and he’s busy trying to decide which kind of gum to buy
Look, he’s not Clint Capela. You can’t, like, EXPECT things from him lol
WE TOLD ALL OF YOU
I remember how stoked Lakers fans were about that pickup saying Bron was going to take him under his wing lol
He gives up after the first time he’s beaten on a play every time. I think if he actually tried to recover on some of these he’d look better. Instead he just hangs in the paint and watches his guy 5 feet away on the perimeter or stays down on the floor while the play happens
Fatigue is not necessarily laziness. Luka spends a lot of energy carrying their offense. Only a handful players through history have had the stamina to play at the high level on both ends. It’s not even about lack of conditioning - it’s just genetics. Either you have it or you don’t.
that’s the wildest part man, you see even Jokic use his intelligence on that end
Defense is a skill like anything else. Watch Jrue Holiday on his championship runs, he understood ball movement, situations and passing lanes of the game. He would then transfer this on offense, where he wasn’t great but never missed a layup and knew when to attack the rim.
Luka seems to have a natural gift for offense, but doesn’t quite understand why it works. If he actually went deeper into his offense, he would know that if you pack the pain and Grayson Allen is driving, then he ’s gonna kick it out to the perimeter, because that’s exactly what he would do. So park your ass on the second guy because they do not need help in the pain with Ayton and Lebron there.
It’s transferring those instincts then essentially mirroring them on defense. Jokic understands this. Even though he’s not the best defender, he knows what area he owns and how to position him. Then it comes down to study and tape. This big likes the elbow, the guy likes the foul line etc.
Luka is either really dumb (which is fine, these are athletes not rocket scientists) or has a blockage on the concept. Lakers should be coaching him on defense. He got his body right, not its time to get his skill right
The Phoenix white boys cooked the Lakers white boys
No booker or brooks either…. Lakers defense is so bad
Previous two games Suns were averaging about 80 points and dead last in shooting percentage. That’s how bad the Lakers defense is.
There was a guy on the Lakers thread that said he was offing himself if the Lakers lost to the Suns. Hope that dude is ok.
Its so funny watching people in these comments.
Is Luka the reason the Lakers had a chance? Yes.
Is he the reason they lost the game? Also, yes.
He’s generational on offense and an actual bum on defense.
Dude he was not the reason they lost lmao. Mr. “Not Capela” had 2 points and 4 rebounds as the starting center.
Luka (as usual) was getting picked on defense. But he still ended the game +9 in a three point loss, with those numbers.
The Lakers sold the game when he went to the bench.
The Lakers bench got outscored like 31-0 in the 3rd quarter. That’s why they lost the game. Absolutely wild stat. lol
People really just like hating on Luka and didn’t actually watch any of the game. The bench got absolutely obliterated when the Lakers had a big lead.
I literally have never seen a more blatant hive mind pile on than Luka right now
It’s absurd for him to play that well and then take the blame. This guy has impossible standards to meet
It’s crazy
Social media is a cancer to society
If he just gave Steve Nash level effort on defense he’d be fine, nobody is asking him to be Gary Payton but he makes it abundantly clear that he just does not give a shit about playing defense.
He’s generational on D too, just not the right kind.
If you think he’s the reason he lost, you didn’t watch the game.
Why is it that when every player joins the Lakers, their PR hits an all time low
Because there is no game where the Lakers fandom doesn’t feel entitled to a win
TBF they were probably entitled to a win this game
I assumed Suns were screwed when they let the lakers tie it late. I just sort of figured that in a clutch situation like that, the team with LeBron and Luka would figure out a way to beat the team relying on Grayson Allen and Colin Gillespie
Yeah in this case I sympathize lol. But they’ve flamed people a lot of times for perfectly reasonable performances and losses. This season especially have gotten too used to winning a ridiculous portion of clutch games. I as a Nuggets fan have no such expectation! 😭
Luka got tons of shit for his defense when he was on the Mavs
It’s the reason he was traded…
do you not remember the 24 finals? probably the worst PR ever for a superstar leading a Finals team, that is still playing in the Finals no less.
you kidding, Jayson Tatum had even worse PR and he won that series lol
Idk man Luka got raked across the coals for that finals. It was the first time I remember seeing ‘blow by %’ as a stat and yet I saw it quoted by like every sports talking head
the real conclusion here is the discourse around every NBA superstar is absolute cancer, except for Wemby but he’ll get there soon
Yeah JT gets lit up for the most random shit ever lol, LeBron had skip bayless after his ass for the last like 15 years
kyrie was the actual one dropping goose eggs at the garden
Kyrie has gotta love Luka. Luka puts up 30+ and shit on by the media in that Finals while Kyrie’s uselessness barely got mentioned.
Nah, maybe you’re just more in tune to the Boston market. Luka was getting destroyed nationally for that series
I’m not sure what outlets you were watching, but ESPN literally had Windhorst on national TV calling Luka out personally for his defensive effort in a full 1 minute rant after game 3.
Yeah, experts were legit picking the Mavs more than the Celtics. Even Vegas had it as a close finals. A lot off revisionism
lol Vegas had Celtics as HEAVY favourites, espn engagement bait doesn’t change history
Luka’s been getting shit for his defense for years
It’s the LeBron PR machine. Every teammate he has is trash, every coach he has is worthless, every personnel decision is the GM’s fault even if LeBron publicly campaigned for the guys they got. Everything is everyone else’s fault, that way nothing is LeBron’s fault.
AR without LeBron at the start of the season: 2nd team all NBA
AR with LeBron: “Highly frustrated”
Hell even Ayton was averaging 16 and 9 without LeBron, with him he averages 12 and 8
remember Kuzma pushing Lebron 😭 it’s a rite of passage
It’s happens on almost all of LeBron’s teams, it’s not a Lakers thing
Players that join the lakers get a spotlight on them. Also every time a player joins the lakers their free throw attempts inflate and they get more benefits from the league as a whole. When a player struggles, its just amplified way worse than it would be if they were in a smaller market
Luka’s defense sucks but the Lakers also start four players (Bron, Reaves, Luka, Ayton) who have no defense. The Lakers aren’t winning games without any defense and they’re definitely not winning games when Luka is the whole offense. Don’t evaluate players in their worst team fit. Not gonna blame Luka for the failures of the team
Yup. Ayton was never known for his atheletism, shot blocking or defense. So they got no anchor. Austin can’t guard anybody. Bron is too old to play lockdown defense for longer stretch than few plays. So, they got no lockdown on the wings. Then they got Luka. Ya we all know he is bad at defense and his effort certainly needs to get better but that he isn’t the only problem. Lakers have a problem with how the team is constructed around Luka.
Cooked by Collin Gillespie
Gillespie is actually nice
OK but Gillespie is actually that motherfucker, don’t sleep.
defend the 3 or flop to draw an offensive foul lol
Disgruntled Ayton with the 2 pts 4 rebs 1 steal -24 game happened.
Remember when the Lakers signed him he was supposed to be the 5 they needed and so much better than Hayes?
Who could possibly have seen this coming?!
Ayton is clearly the more skilled player but no effort at all. Hayes is all effort and no skill. If only you could do some kind of DBZ fusion dance
monkeys paw curls and you get Aytons effort with Hayes skills
Lakers fans kept pushing the “all he needs to do is be better than Hayes” narrative & it was so obvious that was going to age milk. Merely being better than a shitty backup center was never going to be enough
ar is just as bad man lol. half the time hes just standing there too
Luka goes 41/8/8 and +9 in 39 minutes. Lakers go -12 in the 9 minutes he’s on the bench. But sure, blame Luka.
Bench unit gets slaughtered 31-0, ayton 2⁄4 and -24
But yeah it’s the guy that has 41/8/8 and +9 in a 3pt loss that’s the reason they lost
Lol look at you providing “statistics” and “facts.” This is r/nba. We don’t do that here.
Anyone blaming Luka on that last possession has never played a real game of basketball
I know this is “shit on Luka” season, but his defense on the final play honestly wasn’t bad. He’s in decent position to contest and if only one of LaRavia and LeBron contest instead of whatever happened there, you take it, tbh.
The only bad defense is from Luka I see in this clip is a really lazy closeout that leads to a step aside three.
He got beat and his teammates were forced to help
Every single NBA player gets beat off the dribble multiple times a game and often times it leads to an open layup. Luka was still in between his man and the basket and was able to contest.
Starless Suns
But I thought Gillespie played?
Why was Luka even in the game at that time?
Yeah JJ had a timeout left in regulation. At the very least, the last possession Vanderbilt should have been in for him on defense. Must be some ego bullshit
Or bad coaching 🤣
I’m surprised more teams don’t run action to at least have Luka chasing someone as much as possible. If he’s gonna be Mr. Everything on offense, wear him down on defense.
They’re starting to. Same thing is happening with Cade, just fatigue the Carries as much as possible, make the others beat you. Luka then becomes a literal traffic cone towards the end of the game
That’s also why they usually do it only towards the end of the game. The other team knows Luka (or Cade) won’t get any more rest. Run him down so he’ll be gassed enough to start deferring on offense.
The defense is perfectly mediocre enough to not be a liability in and of itself, which is why teams don’t run much targeted action at him early in the game.
It annoys me to no end that people either don’t get or ignore this; it’s a common strategy and Luka isn’t the first nor will he be the last player to be targeted that way.
Teams have done this against LeBron before. They do against Shai. They do it against any player that teams are over reliant on on offense. Luka is the only one that takes heat for it though.
Pretty sure he’s one of league leaders for shots defended. Though “defended” may be a stretch
Can’t wait for luka fans to explain to us how he’s playing solid defense here
He wasn’t but he’s the only one who showed up last night.
Ayton put on a disaster class even by his sorry standards. If he had a pulse they would have won.
-24 in a 3 point loss is nasty work
Meanwhile Vanderbilt was -15 in 5 minutes
They have a lot of issues, for sure
How can you watch this video and say he’s the only one who showed up? It’s like you completely ignore one side of the game. This defense is horrendous. And it’s mostly effort based and laziness. Is it easy to lead offense and play good defense, no. But this guy doesn’t even try. And tbh even if he gave effort I don’t think his body can hold up carrying the offense load and putting great effort on D
You can’t decide whether or not a player “showed up” of of a 40 second clip. Im not excusing his effort here, but the game result doesn’t boil down to just this. They would never be in this position with Lukas numbers if lebron and reaves didnt have off nights. Not to mention the horrendous effort put forward by ayton. Luka definitely needs to learn how to defend within a scheme tho. That would only make himself and his team better
How can you say he didnt show up when he carried the offense and put them in a position to have a chance to win the game? Its like you completely ignored one side of the game
Far from a Luka fan, and there are some awful moments in this clip, but honestly what stood out to me more was how horrible the team defense is.
You can survive Luka being slow and get blown by on the perimeter if you have a decent defensive structure, but no idea what LaRavia is doing on the play Allen gets the wide open shot, and LeBron way over helps on the GW when it looked like Luka and LaRavia would have already forced a tough layup attempt.
This is not to excuse Luka because he is clearly a step or two slow on most of these plays, but it wouldn’t be as glaring if the rest of the team wasn’t also buns defensively.
I agree that the last blow-by looks worse because of how bad they are at defensive rotations. Btw I think Marcus Smart should’ve rotated faster and taken the next pass after reaves, would’ve made things a bit better
On the last defense there was no fucking reason for both Laravia and LeBron to help so hard, especially LeBron.
So the low man shouldn’t help when he’s in the best position to do so, lol.
Laravia was close enough to bother the attacker, and Luka didn’t get blow out and was still able to contest.
Anyway this (and the missed switch by Laravia earlier) should tell you that Lakers defensive woes are deeper than Luka’s subpar PoA defense. There is no defensive discipline, there are no clear defensive rules, and there no plan on hiding Luka by preswitching him and keeping him off the pnr action.
But isn’t it a fine play by leBron if laravia stays on his guy in the corner, and Marcus smart gets ready to rotate over and help? He is their best shotblocker after all and he does a fine job at completely taking away the rim.
And i agree that their defensive problems go well beyond luka
Sir, the next scapegoat has hit LeBron’s team
LeBron is gone lol. This is obviously Luka’s team.
Not my MVP. Sorry.
Still salty about 2024 😂
It’s his overall attitude that is his biggest detriment since it leads to his complaining, and theatrics. He then gets mad on defense and gets blown by/burned. Continues to pout.
This is also the same guy that loves to gloat and antagonize during games. He may have transcendent abilities but he’s got a trash mentality that is proving to be what holds him back. It’s basketball immaturity. Short of some kind of mental shift, he’s never going to reach the heights he may have been capable of. His physical fall off is fast approaching, he’s got a lot of miles on those legs. He’s on the back half of his career whether folks want to admit it.
Why is he even in MVP discussions? The Lakers are currently sitting 6th in the West. He doesn’t play both sides of the floor. If he doesn’t have the ball in his hands he does not contribute. I just don’t get it.
Luka & Ayton are a match made in heaven. PURE COMEDY.
Ayton has a player option too. I absolutely LOVE that for the Lakers.
He is a fantastic player and I’m glad he’ll be contributing to their team again next season.
Suns fans everywhere loving this lol
People wanna talk Luka and ayton
But Jake laravia provides 0 physicality and IQ
he often allows his matchup to just completely move him out of the defensive scheme
as well as make countless clown headed mistakes that make him look like a chicken running around with his head cut off
That’s cause it’s bloody confusing trying to provide help defense for Luka, who’s as much of an idiot savant on defense as he is a genius savant on offense.
Luka is food
I actually thought that last drive was some pretty good defense lol, Bron just came and hit him with a Shining Wizard for some reason
Pretty good defense = getting blown-by. None of the other stuff happens if he stays in front of his man
I mean yeah obviously in a perfect world you don’t allow Allen to get downhill like that, but he rode him all the way to the rim and forced a tough pass. I don’t even think Bron needed to help on that
I agree the help was unnecessary there, they’d already forced him into a tough angle for the shot on the opposite side of the rim.
That stuff always annoys me because it feels like fake hustle. Easier to just commit to the play in front of you instead of running through rotations.
He wasn’t blown-by on the last play. He held his line, Allen had to make a terrible shot/pass from under/behind the basket.
Good execution, good passes and good shot on the last possesion.
Come on home, Bron.
Luka is getting fried here lately.
are yall blind? luka was right there on him he wasn’t going to be able to get a shot off. lebron over helped.
I know we are focusing on Luka but that last play is interesting to me. That’s a tough ask to make Jake going from the opposite corner (he was in the block) to close out on a shooter from the wing. Smart should have rotated to him
What’s the deal with Luka on defense? Is it he doesn’t have a strong off-ball defensive IQ?
people won’t like my answer but it’s just because he’s lazy
If it’s simply just laziness, while that’s obviously not ideal it’s still far from the worst case scenario
My suspicion is that it’s athletically he just doesn’t have the lateral quickness to stay in front of the ball in which case I don’t know how that can ever be fixed
It’s worse than that. He’s lazy AND lost as soon as he is in a position where he needs to rotate in a way that is not incredibly simple.
He’s just unbelievably slow footed on defence.
It’s because he’s long term lazy. Getting fit isn’t just losing a couple of pounds over the summer, it’s creating a strength and cardio foundation that lasts you (hopefully) 82 to 98 games. That shit takes years.
So the consensus is he’s lazy and never had to think about playing defense on a consistent basis.
But this “oh shit let me try to get to the spot when it’s clearly too late” vibe as seen in this video is downright goofy.
Again a thunder flair… still butthurt about that loss two years ago? You got your trophy, you’ve got your MVP i dont get the obsession with Luka. Is he not great on defense, absolutely! Does he whine, sure… If you did watch the game you would notice how he was carrying that bum ass team and was gassed buy the 4th quarter. Don’t know what’s worse the lakers trying to make JJ the new Pat Riley and he miserably failing or Clint not so much Capela. This team in not good, it’s a miracle they are where they are today.
Typical Luka bullying.
Oncic!!!
Luka and Lebron falling to the ground as the Suns mash unit puts up the game winning three… this gotta be a suns fan-fiction or something
When has the narrative changed? Years ago, I remember MVP candidate’s flaws are always magnified because they are supposed to be the best of the best. But now, “oh Luka doesn’t have to play defense, he is carrying the team in offense”… weak-ass fans! Let’s call it “Most Valuable Offensive Player” then.
So much for the Lakers’ elite clutch time record.
41/8/8 on 78 percent total shooting 3 turnovers and a +9 in a loss in a game where he’s the only reason it was even close but all anyone can talk about is his defense lol. “But he gave up 41 points” there is not serious way to have watched the game and argued that. And while Luka is not a good defender, he’s no where close to the worst defender on his own team (he just has really bad lowlights, and that’s not to praise Luka, the Lakers D is just that bad). The annoying parts of Luka’s game, which everyone claims to get on him for is A. Not trying on defense and B. whining to the refs, which I agree he should be shit on for but he did neither last night and had a great game yet his lowlights are still posted to the top of the subreddit lol.
Hell he wasn’t even the worst defender on the team last night, he just got hunted at the end and collapsed defensively due to being exhausted by his offensive effort. In general he gets hunted so much on the Lakers because A. You hunt the main offensive player to tire them out and B. If they’re having to carry the biggest load offensively them being tired out makes it easier to get them on defense. The Mavs had an actual good defense there so he was burned because he was a defensive liability for the team on the otherhand.
Now obviously him not being a good defender means they hunt him but according to advanced stats and film watchers he’s really a slightly below average defender with really bad lowlights that make him look worse, and his lack of effort is way more frustrating than someone like Jokic or Steph who actually tries. But if some of the highest upvoted content in the subreddit is shitting on Luka’s defense in a game where he wasn’t the worst defender on the team nor was he not trying on defense, in a game where he’s the only reason it was remotely close, with a fantastic offensive game, it’s obvious the subreddit is just on a Luka hate thread right now instead of genuine analysis. Same way every big star other than maybe Jokic and Wemby gets hated when the cycle swings (and just you wait, Wemby’s time will come too).
Lol…franchise player. The level of effort is laughable
Generational offensively but an absolute liability defensively. Should never be in the MVP race
Beautiful ball movement on that last bit for the score.
This game is so boring. Just 3 pointer after 3 pointer launched. Zero mid game
What in the absolute fuck was LeBron doing this entire fucking possession??? How is this blamed on Luka ?
There are multiple possessions in this clip
Most of this possesions are bad team defense. It was happening all night. Smart said they didn’t communicate enough and that’s what we see here. This team just looks switched off
They called that first one a defensive foul???
Young Bron would have cooked with Luka and easily make up for his poor D, Old Bron just can’t pull the same triple duty anymore
Really trying to figure out what went wrong at :23. Should Laravia have committed to the switch onto Allen?
I think he was trying to hedge to stop Luka from getting blown by (see the play at the end) but Luka misread it as a switch (not sure why he would think it was a switch). Then Luka stayed in no man’s land guarding no one when Laravia tried to get back to his man.
i don’t care how productive you are on offense if you’re this much of a liability on defense.
He’d have to average 40 on like 65% ts to be a positive
That’s how the celtics won a ring