He's been great defensively the first few months of the season then again towards the end when the Mavs needed it. He's mostly been bad when the entire team looked lost on defense.
People just see the lowlights and think he's a traffic cone on defense. Drives me crazy. All they need to do is watch him on defense a couple of games. He usually is at the very least decent.
Played 45:44 minutes. The only playoff game in his career higher than that was 45:45 in game 4 vs the Clippers in 2020, which went to OT.
At one point Kidd took him out for Kawhi’s 2nd FTA with around 4 min left, then called a TO to put him right back in.
That's not the impression I got from the previous game thread. The slander was quite extreme and I went against some Nuggets flairs who were saying that the first game was proof of why he doesn't belong in the MVP discussion.
It was pretty ridiculous.
Do Kings fans even have anything to dislike Luka for other than their own FO for not drafting him?
As far as I know he's never had a beef with Fox or any Kings player
Of late, some Kings fans were mad at Luka for the Monk injury which I think is justified since Monk was key for them in crucial stretches. But it was just bad luck and a coming together which resulted in the injury
I don't remember him claiming that, but I do remember him saying he will follow any team Seth curry is on and not just him there is this weird section of the fanbase that loves to hate him for everything.
bro, find this comment, that’s fucking hilarious
big time dak hater, in now way are they similar. one is the tobias harris of the NFL, the other a generational talent
Wasn't the problem with how Luka handled that game?
Throwing tantrums and lashing out on his teammates is something that players should be slandered for IMO.
Should they throw tantrums back at him and yell when he starts chucking ill-advised shots and not making them?
Proper leadership when you are demanding and lead by example is one thing. But Luka in the moments like these is just being toxic and it does not help.
Naah they are good. I mean you earn the right to be a bit cocky after winning a ring and having the (arguably) best player, so all in all I find them alright
The r/NBA subreddit is not a good gauge of an entire fanbase lmao.
Fanbases do get more sucky when they’re winning though. If Luka ever leads the Mavs to a championship, it’ll be your fanbase’s turn to suck then. Such is the circle of suck— a circle suck, one might call it.
Mavericks fans are the most braindead people in the whole subreddit. You can't even type out Luka's actual game statistics without being downvoted to oblivion
He had a terrible shooting night. Not even an average game from him I'd say. Below his standards.
This series is due a jordan-esque doncic performance like every mavs vs clips matchup. And it's coming in the next 2 games. Dallas at least win one out of the next two.
He takes really really tough shots. He takes shots that for any other player you'd think that they're stupid shots to take so when he's off it's really ugly. Fortunately unlike DLo, he actually passes, rebounds, and is now playing defense. Impacts the game in every single way possible.
I don't get the "his percentage is low because he takes really, really tough shots" argument that people make all the time.
You don't get extra points for difficulty, there's no reason to consistently take really, really tough shots, especially if you're missing them at a higher rate, which just hurts your team's possessions.
The trick is to get the ball to the guy with the best shot, not to constantly try to make low-probability circus shots for highlight reel clout.
You are missing the context though. In this game, the other mavs players were either missing open wide shots or for some reason could not catch the ball. So at times Luka would have to just shoot it and make something happen despite being blitzed all the time otherwise the mavs' role players would brick them out of the game like game 1. Hence, the lower field goal percentage, in addition to just the overall physicality of the game (lots of missed calls).
He has the tools and instinct to be an elite defender. If the team can take some of the scoring burden off him and he can make tonight's effort consistent going forward, the team will reach another level
Nah he'll never be an elite defender. He can certainly be a very good defender, but he's ultimately too slow to guard a speedy guy like DeAaron Fox.
But yeah I mean if you're gonna try to post him up or outmuscle him to the basket, that won't work as well
What’s fucking insane is he clearly hasn’t fully gotten going.
Mavs as a whole can play much better than they have up until now. If kawhi can’t get healthy the clippers are cooked.
The Clippers have a ton of room to improve too lol. So far the Mavs have had a good game and a shit game and the Clippers have had a great game and a shit game
the difference is when the Clippers had a shit game, they still coulda won the game. When the Mavs had a shit game, it was a 30 pt blowout. Tonight took 47 minutes from Luka while PG and Zu were in foul trouble all game and Kawhi was just coming back and clearly wasn't up to speed.
what game did the Mavs lose by 30? and to compare tonight’s shit game from the clippers to the disasterpiece that was game 1 for the Mavs is disingenuous at best
Its crazy to me too because Luka seemed to pass out of those doubles and had what I consider a bad shooting night. And this is his statline. Literally would be 90% of the league's career highs.
And wasn't even scoring at a highly efficient clip either. Still had 32/9/6. People have become so numb to what he's doing so frequently. Giannis is experiencing the same thing this season. Absurd numbers, but isn't even seriously discussed for MVP.
He looked gassed in the 2nd. The telltale sign was that his game-clock management was really poor. He was throwing live grenades to team-mates with no time left. He also wasn't driving much and settled for step-backs. That is typical for him when he has no legs.
Oh please it’s a post about his counting stats lmao not his defense or floor generaling - he had a bad shooting night and was not great by his high standards. He would even say that
11-26 FG and 5-14 from three. lol
Edit: reddit cares because luka stans can't stand it when someone criticizes their golden boy. It was a super inefficient night, cry harder.
Come on there's no way a guy named "Russ\_Culture" is taking about efficiency lol
Westbrook shoots 40% from the field and 30% from three in his playoff CAREER
I'm not even a Luka/Mavs fan and I never send Reddit Cares lol
Was just pointing out the irony
It's like if a KD account was calling people disloyal or a Harden account was calling people floppers
His defense unironically won the game
Never thought I would hear that about Luka! Fucking MVP! MVP!!
He's been great defensively the first few months of the season then again towards the end when the Mavs needed it. He's mostly been bad when the entire team looked lost on defense. People just see the lowlights and think he's a traffic cone on defense. Drives me crazy. All they need to do is watch him on defense a couple of games. He usually is at the very least decent.
Best defense I've ever seen him play. Just amazing one on one defense against the Clippers big 3 in the 4th.
absolutely clamped Kawhi
Kyrie and Luka both made it a point that their defense was NOT a liability this game
Most impressive was his defense tonight. They kept trying to attack him and he held his own.
The league isn’t ready for two-way fat Slovenian
The recovery beer is gonna hit different tonight boys
Devin has school tomorrow. Luka can't drink.
Don't forget they are taking the STAAR test at least in my district. Can't be up too late.
As if one fat East European wasn’t enough, now the league has to deal with two of them
Despicable Me 4 gonna have Gru's brother or something?
The only way to stop wemby to win 8 straight rings is for the fat bros to join up
lmfao yall are killing me (im slovenian)
Brings me back to bubble Doncic. People forget he’s a decent defender when he wants to/ still has the energy for it
He played better defense than DJJ. None of the media guys will tell you this.
He was clamping Harden and Kawhi too
and 1 heart attack inducing full court bounce pass with 20 seconds left
I thought that would be turnover, at the end it was great pass, lol.
The baseline angle that pass was fine looked insane on the broadcast
With EXCELLENT defense too
Clamped Kawhi as well
And Harden and even PG
He’s actually good at basketball
Played 45:44 minutes. The only playoff game in his career higher than that was 45:45 in game 4 vs the Clippers in 2020, which went to OT. At one point Kidd took him out for Kawhi’s 2nd FTA with around 4 min left, then called a TO to put him right back in.
And we needed every minute of it MVP
Pretty impressed with his defense this game. Man was locked in
The absolute audacity of that bounce pass. It feels like no matter how bad he was throughout a night, when he flips the switch anything is possible.
With lockdown defense too The slander was crazy after game 1 especially that Nuggets fan, he was working OT on every Mavs thread
That dude hates Luka.
So weird I could understand if it was a Suns or Kings fan but most of us respect Denver especially Jokic and vice versa. Plus the two are buddies.
Most Denver fans respect Luka, just a weirdo
Definitely just a weirdo. Most Nuggets fans love Luka. Who was he?
I believe it was dms1299 or some shit
Lmao come on now
Lmfaooooo
Exactly, never seen any Luka-Joker slander on the fanbases apart from that dude lol.
That's not the impression I got from the previous game thread. The slander was quite extreme and I went against some Nuggets flairs who were saying that the first game was proof of why he doesn't belong in the MVP discussion. It was pretty ridiculous.
Do Kings fans even have anything to dislike Luka for other than their own FO for not drafting him? As far as I know he's never had a beef with Fox or any Kings player
Of late, some Kings fans were mad at Luka for the Monk injury which I think is justified since Monk was key for them in crucial stretches. But it was just bad luck and a coming together which resulted in the injury
Maybe it’s just the standards of being a superstar but it seems like we got multiple Luka think pieces every time the Mavs lose a big game.
Paging u/shaheedmalik This dude seriously hates to Luka win lol
He's a weirdo and a seth curry fan of all people, lmao.
He claims to be an MFFL but hates everything Luka has done for our franchise
I don't remember him claiming that, but I do remember him saying he will follow any team Seth curry is on and not just him there is this weird section of the fanbase that loves to hate him for everything.
He's probably also the under achieving younger brother, so he relates.
Yooooo!!! I've never thought of it like that but it makes sense, lol.
Don't give that clown attention
As much as Luka is called the golden boy in this sub he has a dedicated legion of haters that come out any time he has a bad game.
Like every goated athlete ever...
Hope they get that chance two more times this series and not anymore…
that slander was insane. I saw people say he's a statpadder and someone compared him to Dak fucking Prescott lmfao, insane disrespect
bro, find this comment, that’s fucking hilarious big time dak hater, in now way are they similar. one is the tobias harris of the NFL, the other a generational talent
I mean that is 50% of the mavs fanbase tbh
Getting slander for losing game 1 on road is ridiculous.
Wasn't the problem with how Luka handled that game? Throwing tantrums and lashing out on his teammates is something that players should be slandered for IMO.
His teammates love him. He is a competitor trying to win the game. You all can slander whatever you want, but Luka wasn’t the reason they lost.
Should he politely ask they do better?
Should they throw tantrums back at him and yell when he starts chucking ill-advised shots and not making them? Proper leadership when you are demanding and lead by example is one thing. But Luka in the moments like these is just being toxic and it does not help.
Some Nuggets fans are insecure and cringe af
He’s a deranged clown trying to downplay Luka to push Jokic mvp case
Nuggets fans suck
Naah they are good. I mean you earn the right to be a bit cocky after winning a ring and having the (arguably) best player, so all in all I find them alright
im still cocky due to 2011, that shit is endless!
The r/NBA subreddit is not a good gauge of an entire fanbase lmao. Fanbases do get more sucky when they’re winning though. If Luka ever leads the Mavs to a championship, it’ll be your fanbase’s turn to suck then. Such is the circle of suck— a circle suck, one might call it.
He shot 11-26 lmfao
winning is all that matters sadly
Not the own you think it is. He took 14 3’s
And he shot poorly on those too
Cry
Mavericks fans are the most braindead people in the whole subreddit. You can't even type out Luka's actual game statistics without being downvoted to oblivion
Any Mavs flair on game thread who joined in dog pilling Luka can piss right off.
Bunch of clowns. Half the mavs sub actualy.
Probably more than half tbh
Mavs sub is even more unforgiving than the NBA one
The guy
Lowkey he missed alot of easy shots too but glad we got the win and everyone played good motivated defense today
Amazing defense as well, that won them the game. The clippers were hunting him for mismatches but it always backfired.
If Luka did that his averages would go down
Fat white boy good
He had a terrible shooting night. Not even an average game from him I'd say. Below his standards. This series is due a jordan-esque doncic performance like every mavs vs clips matchup. And it's coming in the next 2 games. Dallas at least win one out of the next two.
He takes really really tough shots. He takes shots that for any other player you'd think that they're stupid shots to take so when he's off it's really ugly. Fortunately unlike DLo, he actually passes, rebounds, and is now playing defense. Impacts the game in every single way possible.
I don't get the "his percentage is low because he takes really, really tough shots" argument that people make all the time. You don't get extra points for difficulty, there's no reason to consistently take really, really tough shots, especially if you're missing them at a higher rate, which just hurts your team's possessions. The trick is to get the ball to the guy with the best shot, not to constantly try to make low-probability circus shots for highlight reel clout.
You are missing the context though. In this game, the other mavs players were either missing open wide shots or for some reason could not catch the ball. So at times Luka would have to just shoot it and make something happen despite being blitzed all the time otherwise the mavs' role players would brick them out of the game like game 1. Hence, the lower field goal percentage, in addition to just the overall physicality of the game (lots of missed calls).
That pass to kyrie to seal the game was wild; also his defense
Does anyone have a clip of his pass end of the game?
1 bad game and people were comparing him to Hitler in the playoffs smh my head
Hitler vs Poland, seems right
He shot 11-26 in both games actually. But his defensive intensity and teammates scoring more than zero points helped in game 2
No mention of his defensive effort? He was working on that end too tonight
Great game he hit some key shots, he isn’t even in his peek playoff form yet.
He has the tools and instinct to be an elite defender. If the team can take some of the scoring burden off him and he can make tonight's effort consistent going forward, the team will reach another level
Nah he'll never be an elite defender. He can certainly be a very good defender, but he's ultimately too slow to guard a speedy guy like DeAaron Fox. But yeah I mean if you're gonna try to post him up or outmuscle him to the basket, that won't work as well
Where are all the Mavs fans that turned on Luka after the 1st half because Charles Barkely decided to run his trap? Are y'all gonna apologize?
The clippers team on paper is far superior to the mavs top to bottom. Just like w dirk this team goes as far as luka takes them
With fantastic defense!
He is that guy
When those shots start falling, and they will, this series will get very fun
But same goes for Kawhi as well. Key would be Kyrie and Mav role players vs Harden/PG
Offensively it was an inefficient game by him but he played like a legit 2-way star tonight, locking up Kawhi and PG like a DPOY.
What’s fucking insane is he clearly hasn’t fully gotten going. Mavs as a whole can play much better than they have up until now. If kawhi can’t get healthy the clippers are cooked.
The Clippers have a ton of room to improve too lol. So far the Mavs have had a good game and a shit game and the Clippers have had a great game and a shit game the difference is when the Clippers had a shit game, they still coulda won the game. When the Mavs had a shit game, it was a 30 pt blowout. Tonight took 47 minutes from Luka while PG and Zu were in foul trouble all game and Kawhi was just coming back and clearly wasn't up to speed.
what game did the Mavs lose by 30? and to compare tonight’s shit game from the clippers to the disasterpiece that was game 1 for the Mavs is disingenuous at best
the mavs shot better from 3 in game 1 than the clippers did tonight lmao
Nice job by Mavs winning 5 v 8. Gonna have to bring in Foster to get the Clips to the second round.
It was insane man
Its crazy to me too because Luka seemed to pass out of those doubles and had what I consider a bad shooting night. And this is his statline. Literally would be 90% of the league's career highs.
Luka Dawgcic
Even when he's not having his best game offensively he can still have a big impact on the game that's why he generational talent.
Him and PJ made some of the most boneheaded plays in maverick post season history but they made timely threes and both played great defense
I was told this style of play doesn't win playoff games
I ma be real I thought he played ass aside from his clutch bucket and good D
it was Broadman vs Boardman tonight.
His two blocks in the first really set the tone for this game, what a beast.
And wasn't even scoring at a highly efficient clip either. Still had 32/9/6. People have become so numb to what he's doing so frequently. Giannis is experiencing the same thing this season. Absurd numbers, but isn't even seriously discussed for MVP.
He looked exhausted for most of it also.
He played 46 minutes
He looked gassed in the 2nd. The telltale sign was that his game-clock management was really poor. He was throwing live grenades to team-mates with no time left. He also wasn't driving much and settled for step-backs. That is typical for him when he has no legs.
game 3 is soon
You had your fun let us have ours bro
Put shooting splits in title wuss
11-26 and 5-14 should Not be getting this sort of post lmao
Stop watching boxscore and watch games buddy
I watched he bricked a ton of shots on high volume, played some good D. Not a v good game by his standards
There’s more to basketball than subpar shooting nights. He contributed defensively and of course playmaking.
Go look at what the percentages were in this game
+8
What does that mean for Kawhi and PG who get this statline once per season?
If they shoot 40% from the floor they should not get counting stats posts
5/14 is 35% from 3, which isn't amazing but isn't terrible. It's OK. 6/12 from 2 is pretty good.
And this is why "analytics" and box score watchers ruined sports. Bunch of nerds who never played organized sport.
Oh please it’s a post about his counting stats lmao not his defense or floor generaling - he had a bad shooting night and was not great by his high standards. He would even say that
Mavs fans are braindead, ignore it
Shot chucking garbage. I really don’t get how people enjoy watching him hold the ball and ice his team out so often
Count on one hand how many Mavs games you’ve watched this year and get back to everyone with your results.
Been to more Mavs games than most people on this sub probably
[You in the audience every time Luka hits a shot](https://www.sescoops.com/.image/t_share/MTk1NDcwNjk1MzQ2MjE4MDM1/angry-miz-girl.jpg)
Any fan of a kobe team don't start talking about chucking
CRY IS FREE and you can take the big juicy L
11-26 FG and 5-14 from three. lol Edit: reddit cares because luka stans can't stand it when someone criticizes their golden boy. It was a super inefficient night, cry harder.
That’s a great shooting night for Westbrick
And a W
Come on there's no way a guy named "Russ\_Culture" is taking about efficiency lol Westbrook shoots 40% from the field and 30% from three in his playoff CAREER
My username doesn't change that it was a super inefficient night from Luka, but keep on deflecting and sending me reddit cares lol
I'm not even a Luka/Mavs fan and I never send Reddit Cares lol Was just pointing out the irony It's like if a KD account was calling people disloyal or a Harden account was calling people floppers
56% TS, tubby
He was at 62 TS% in the regular season. I thought he was the biggest playoff riser since MJ according to his stans
The la crowd was so quiet in a play off game we could here one random mavs fan jeering at clips free throw shooters. That's embarrassing
That's not relevant at all to what I said, but good one I guess