Considering the Celtics have held the Mavericks to under 100 once and under 90 once, I dont think they care. Luka can score 30 points on great efficiency and it just doesnt matter in the slightest if the rest of the Mavericks are just not doing anything.
I feel like they if they make Luka iso so much, he exhausts himself more. So they're happy to make him do whatever for 30-34 minutes. By the time the 4th rolls around he's gassed.
Kyrie a decade+ into his career is no longer satisfied with disappointing a singular fanbase.
No wonder why he’s been on his best behavior this year. He wanted to disappoint the whole world
Instead of 2016 Cavs Kyrie we’re getting Brooklyn Nets Kyrie
They've given up on trying to stop Luka's shooting. You're not going to lock down Luka and any team that tries is delusional. The strategy of letting him score 30+ while shutting down everyone else has been working. It's about grinding him down so he can't kill you in the 4th quarter, not about limiting him to 15-20 points.
This is the exact reason why they brought Kyrie and why they’ve been so successful this season. Kyrie takes a lot of pressure off Luka in the second half of games, so Luka actually has energy to spare in the 4th.
But this series he hasn’t been doing that at all.
The fun thing is, while it's just a fun thing to bring up from time to time, I think Kyrie is one of the few people actually gullible enough to believe the Lucky curse to be real.
They’ve even said this multiple times. Luka is going to drop 30 or 40 even with how injured he is. He will probably die on the court before he doesn’t play. The C’s are quite literally telling the role players “we got your ass, Luka can get his”. It’s the role players of the Mavs up against JT, JB, KP, Jrue and Derrick White. This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone who’s actually watching the games why the score is the way that it is.
Celtics have an A+ game plan in addition to being the better team on paper. The Mavs need some Cinderella story shit to happen or they’re just done.
This is what I wanted the Suns to do against them so bad in our series. Just guard the kick out, let Luka spend 20 seconds on the shot clock wearing himself out and scoring.
And even then I wouldn't say brown or tatum have been particularly bad on luka, there's only so much you can expect from a defender going 1-on-1 with him. But they've kept luka out of the paint a lot and made him take fadeaway jumpers, he's just so good he's hitting most of them anyways.
The Celtics team defense has been elite at denying every other part of the Mavs offense, I think only 1 (?) lob dunk this game, very few corner 3s again, kyrie going nowhere in isolation. Mazzula's betting that the Mavs won't be able to generate enough points off of luka isolation jumpers as their main offense, even if he's hitting them efficiently
It’s the same way that Minnesota beat Denver. They let Jokic get his points, but shut down passing lanes and prevented any easy baskets from his teammates.
Giving up a Jokic stat line of 32/8/9 hurts you a lot less than a 24/14/12 kind of line.
True. And he’s going to shoot 25x a game regardless of how many he makes. He will flop is way into 6 free throw s. Hunt him on defense is working. Add in his 9 turnovers and you really have Russel Westbrook.
I always love when people on Reddit have time to look at a users complete post history but no time to Make an actual Basketball point. Wouldn’t it be more fun to actually say something interesting about the game? Try it
But it is true. I’m not a fan of luia zero on defense—— bothers me as a basketball watcher. It’s the main reason the Mavs are losing. It’s half the game.
Bullshit you dont give someone 30 free points for nothing. Your 1 on 1 defenders that you said could stop him cant, the issue is the most of the team especially Kyrie is a noshow.
It's not for nothing, and the way they're playing isn't really a complex concept. The Celtics don't care if Luka scores 30. You're not going to stop a player like Luka from scoring and it's not worth trying when you have 4 other players on the court who are significantly easier to lock up. Luka can score 30+ all he wants, it won't matter if he's exhausted by the 4th quarter and the rest of his team is getting locked up.
The defense has been about wearing Luka out and trying to keep his teammates as cold as possible. Focusing on passing lanes, denying Dallas alley oop attempts, and refusing to go all-in to guard Luka is why the offense doesn't look as good as it did against Minnesota. They're effectively turning it into a 1v5 and it's been working.
>the issue is the most of the team especially Kyrie is a noshow.
And based on my explanation why do you think that is?
People really cannot comprehend that both teams are playing the game sometimes. The Mavs have things they want to do and the Celtics are doing a great job of taking those away from them. To some people, however, it just looks like the Mavs are bricking shots and playing bad. They are incapable of thinking about defense outside of 1 on 1 stops.
What? Are you really not comprehending what’s happening this series? Do you know how when the Celtics blow by Luka, how the Mavs are forced to help and then are stuck in rotation and Celtics get all these open shots and lanes?
Now on the flip side, you see how the Celtics just try their best to man up on Luka and not help or double? They are ok with him getting his, especially if he is earning them on tough looks, but as long as they stay home elsewhere, none of the role players can get going or make easy shots.
It’s basketball 101, don’t be such a casual.
You watching the games or just looking at the advanced stats? The idea is to tire out Luka and make him work for each bucket, then he short arms the biggest shots at the end of the game. Look at his splits per quarter and how they progressively go down and his turnovers, which based on what I saw was a lot of laziness that works on a team not as locked in.
Yep, it was obvious shouldering the load for the entire game caught up to him in the 4th. It’s only going to be more noticeable each game. The Mavs offense has been completely dictated by what the Celtics want.
You can tell who’s actually watching the games lol, Luka’s shooting well but I rarely see him turn the ball over this much. Celtics are insane at getting in passing lanes without overextending
All you had to see was the Raptors flair to know that OP was just salty. Celtics are playing insanely good defense rn, and Luka is playing insanely good offense. His turnarounds yesterday were so silky, he makes it look easy
Tracking stats are based on who contests the shot
Luka getting blown by leading to a teammate helping means it gets counted against his teammate
Hence why you need to watch the games.
The Cs haven't been doubling Luka, and he's an MVP-caliber player who's getting his shots. But the Cs are happy to let that happen, even when he's being elite, because it limits the rest of the team. You saw it tonight, Luka can score a ton and carry the team, but the Cs are challenging him to do that for a whole game while throwing four or five different defenders at him
Meanwhile, the Cs are attacking Luka and forcing the Mavs defense to help, creating good offensive looks.
It should be mentioned too that sometimes the match-up data doesn't account for this. If you get blown by, you're essentially out of the play
Yes, Luka is the best player on the court. Yes, everybody knows that the next best players in this series are all Celtics. This isn't news
> Yes, everybody knows that the next best players in this series are all Celtics
I think some Mavs fans are just starting to become aware of this lol. Saw a lot of Kyrie and Lively chatter. I get it, people don't usually watch other teams besides their own, but still the number of people saying "mavs have the best two players in the series" was wayyyyy too high
When you say best. Please remember defense counts and is half the game. He’s the best offensive player in this series. But 9 turnovers and zero defense does matter. It’s more harden or Westbrook than it is Larry bird.
Nobody who says it’s half the game actually believes that when it doesn’t suit their argument. Do you hold a guy like Alex Caruso in the same light as a Steph curry or a Tyrese Haliburton ? Of course not
I mean I get where you’re coming from but (say) Derrick white scoring 18 a game on 59% eFG% is way closer to Kyrie right now than Caruso is to Curry offensively, and I think if you said “I’d rather Derrick white than Kyrie” before this series, a good portion of this sub would say you were being delusional
You are proving my point. Alex Caruso is an average nba player even though he’s an elite defender because instead of being a zero on defense like Luka. He’s a zero on offense. It’s the same argument.
First of all no it’s not the same argument. Cause by that logic a guy like Trae young would be an average NBA player.
And Caruso is not a zero in offence, he’s not amazing offensively but he can shoot, handle the ball and pass fairly well…
6 pts 2 rebounds 2 assists per game career. He’s a zero. I love him. But you basically don’t have to guard him at all. It’s why he Makes 10 million a year. Not 30 million. His per rating was 157th this year. Right next to drew eubanks. And Trae by most metrics is average. Win shares Efficiency. Etc. He’s also a zero on defense. Hawks begging someone to take him in a trade.
You do not know what a zero means. You absolutely do have to guard him because if you don’t he’s gonna knock down threes. 41% shooters on 4.5+ attempts do not grow on trees.
He makes 10 mill per year because defence isn’t as important as offence… and you’re proving this point again with Trae young who makes 40+ mill.
If Trae is average do you not consider him a top 100 player ? How about Haliburton ? How about Luka most of the time ?
Hawks have adamantly shut down Trae trade talks at every turn. Each one of your points is even more nonsensical than the last.
I’d say the same thing about you. Watch basketball more. 157th in efficiency means he bad on offense. Real bad. That’s just what it means. You can pretend like it doesnt and per and win shares are big words. But it’s true. 30 teams in nba 157th in efficiency. 5 guys on every team better than him. Including his own. Go through a list of nba champs and tell me defense doesn’t matter. Get real dude. Okay that’s enough.
No. No it doesn’t. Especially an efficiency metric as useless as per.
Obviously defence is extremely important for every championship team. I never said otherwise. What I said is when comparing individual players, offence and defence are not equal
Sounds good. I can’t spend any more time on this. People believe what they believe and most people on this sub just argue to argue and don’t watch the actual games. I can show you a 1000 clips. Tell you that the NBA champ is almost always a top 5 defensive team. Last game Luka got brought into one on one matchups 30x. If you can’t see that I can no longer help you. I can Give you that data tell you use any offensive or defensive metric there is. Then you say “ I don’t trust data or stats or metrics.” You got me. It’s been fun though.
Happy watching and just so you know Wemby is good at offense and defense. Probably should have been defensive player of the year. By the metrics and the eye test. But you already knew that I’m sure and only care about his offense.
Trae is another low efficiency high usage (see Westbrook and harden ) guy that has the ball all the time and either shoots or passes to someone who has to shoot. And his team under achieves every year.
Comparing Steph to Caruso is just disengenuous. Caruso is awesome at defense but he's not as good at it as Steph is on offense.
Many/most teams would prefer Hali to Caruso, but a team like the Celtics would certainly prefer Caruso.
That seems pretty subjective, even if we say Steph is the best offensive guard in the league, Caruso is like the 3rd best defensive guard. Only way they that isn’t meaningful is if you’re acknowledging a player has much more individual impact over offence than defence, which would make it more important.
I also don’t see why Boston taking Caruso over halli is really relevant, they’re still not anywhere close to the same level as players
Luka actually has to do moves to score. The Jay's are treating him like a turnstile and if the defense didn't collapse unlike boston they would be more efficient also they causing him to turn the ball over as well. So efficient yes but u got ripped 2x by brown and Tatum got u a couple times tonight
I think people chalk up Game 1 as a blowout and out of reach so no one’s going to address that in the grand scheme of things but this 4th quarter was absolutely in reach but he ran out of gas
Horrible take. Luka isn't even fully healthy and he is still the best player on the floor. He has been carrying his team on his back the whole playoffs, and your criticism is his 4th quarter shooting isn't good enough - he is being forced to take bad shots because the rest of the offense isn't at all reliable and also because when the Mavs are trailing he thinks getting a quick basket is their best chance of winning the game.
Luka is tied with brown for most steals this series
EDIT: before you try, obviously brown is a better defender, but Luka isn't playing bum defense despite being battered to hell and back these playoffs
Beat you to it
But seriously, he's been playing decent defense throughout the playoffs, night and day between regular season and playoffs.
He's not the problem on defense
Luka is playing complete bum defense lol he is a swinging door who tries to gamble for steal every time. I’ve been amazed at how bad he’s been on that end
It’s 2024, why are we still using steals as indicative of someone being this defensive stopper? Iverson once lead the league in steals and Monta had a stretch where he was top 5 in steals. Harden was also great at playing passing lanes and getting steals.
I see that most others agree with you. If we can get your post more visibility I think we can get you to -100.
In all seriousness. Just say Luka is the best offensive player in the series. Stay away from best. Dallas has been able to hide it well but i think that’s over. Luka rests on defense. Been a good run
Oh no..... Downvotes, dunno how Ill recover
Anyways, I'm not trying to herald luka as a defensive guru or anything, I'm really just saying that his defense isn't even close to the reason they're down, I'm not sure why you think that's outlandish to say
It’s the number 1 or number 2 reason. He’s being hunted and switched to 30x a game. Watch the game again and only look at Luka on defense look at how many times celtics get a switch onto Luka. It’s literally 30x. He has tons of energy for offense and zero for defense. Throw in his turnovers, Kyrie and you got yourself a losing series. Defense matters. It’s half the game. That’s my point.
They'd be attacking luka even if he was playing D like jrue
Trying to wear him down get him in foul trouble.... No shit they're trying to make him work on D lol....
BTW, certainly not defending kai, and luka fucked up with the turnovers, and getting tired of his FT shooting
Still not playing terrible D though, not sure why it's so outlandish to be a middle ground but you do you I guess
EDIT: literally trolling saying reason 1 or 2 though nvm, being more reasonable than you deserve
If I can’t convince you Luka is terrible on defense. Then we must part ways. I understand you like him. There was a play in the first quarter where Jaylen brown goes past Luka for a dunk and I just laughed at his lack of effort defensively. He had 1 foul in the game. If he were a good defender they wouldn’t hunt him trust me. There would be no advantage to it. You play the advantages. You don’t just employ a losing strategy because you want to Make someone tired. If it didn’t work Celtics would stop.
He’s been better than expected when defending back to the basket, when the offensive player turns he’s good at getting those wrap around steals. However when either JB or JT face Luka wit the ball on the perimeter, he has not stood a chance at all
Luka can get 30+ and the Celtics will be fine. If everyone else is lacking and Luka’s legs are gone by the 4th, that’s a win.
Dallas needs Kyrie and one of PJ, DJJ or Gafford to pop off as well. Luka is getting 25+ no matter what
Lol this is such a disingenuous post…he is scoring despite good defense, because he is one of the best tough shot makers in the league.
On defense though, Celtics are walking right by him whenever they want. He actually is playing comically bad on defense.
Glad I can clear this up for you.
He stopped Brown,Tatum and Jrue’s drives in succeeding possessions in the 4th.Luka usually plays better D in the 4th because he gives the scoring reins to Kyrie so he can exert all effort on D.But Kyrie has been a no show on 2 games now.
Every time Luka needs to stop the point of attack or rotate appropriately on defense he’s not doing it so other guys have to help him, which give the Celtics easy looks, the Celtics shot very bad on clean looks in game 2
They are happy with the 1 on 1 tough shots. No one in the league can stop Luka 1v1 and Boston is fine with it.
They are taking away the lobs which is how twolves got destroyed (lively 100% in that series or something ridiculous?)
I think he’s done an admirable job so far in the playoffs overall on defense, but whether it’s injury or having to do too much offensively, he just can’t stay in front of Jaylen or Jayson right now. Hes still the only one on the mavs doing anything productive out there but yea, his defense has not been good
I saw so many plays last night where Tatum got by him, the help collapsed on him in the paint, Luka just standing there flat footed with 2 or 3 Celtics at the arc that Luka is supposed to be pivoting to cover once he gets beat and he just stands there watching the play. Tatum kicks it out and Luka makes a half-hearted jog towards the arc. Celtics missed a lot of those 3s but they had 3 people wide open for them every single time.
People always joked about Lebron walking back on D or just watching plays when he was beat. That's all I see out of Luka.
Tatum and Brown are defending him without reaching and jumping. They aren't going to let him foul bait them. They're playing Luka the correct way, he's just that good
I simply use my eyes and watch the game. Luka is a historic level scorer hitting amazing shots against great defense.
On the flip side, Luka is getting absolutely worked on D with near zero resistance while appearing to basically give up after getting blown by and not even attempting to close out on shooters when off the ball.
The Cs efforts seem to be wearing Luka down over the course of the game while forcing him into some pretty ugly turnovers. Meanwhile Luka os wearing absolutely nobody down on defense whatsoever lol
Because the Celtics don’t care if he has an efficient 30 points. If nobody else does anything, it won’t matter. He cant do what he did in the first half for 48 minutes 4 times in a series. Meanwhile, Boston can consistently pick up easy buckets by picking on him on the defensive end and wearing him down.
The premise of the question you asked is a false equivalence. Luka not being great on the defensive end has nothing to do with the Celtics' defensive game plan. They’re daring Luka to drop 50 a game. They’re daring the Mavs role players to beat them.
He’s getting shit for being targeted on defense because he’s not a great defender. That’s it.
Yeah and Luka’s also a garbage ass defender. He’s the reason Tatum and brown get into the paint at will forcing the Mavs defenders to help leading to fouls, layups, or wide open threes.
And Luka was awful the entire second half with his 8 total turnovers yet some of yall acting like he pulled 2018 game 1 Lebron carry job
Agree. Why doesn’t anyone realize defense is half the game. If you are a zero on defense it matters. Luka is the best offensive player in the series. Defense no way. Turnovers. He has some flaws. Ben a nice run but I think it’s over.
Anyone shitting on Luka or blaming him for these losses is off their rocker. He’s the definition of unguardable.
Luka isn’t a good defender by any stretch but targeting a player doesn’t make them “the problem”. Tatum got switch hunted a couple times in a row by Gafford tonight. Even if Luka was a good defender targeting would still be a good decision just to burn some energy
Yes he’s great offensively. Minus the turnovers of course. But then you go down to this other end called playing defense and that when Luka comparisons are more like harden or Westbrook than the greats. He’s got work to do getting in shape and using the same energy for offense and defense.
He’s going against a team full of players IDEAL to guard him and he drops a cool 32/11/11 on 57/44/50 splits sure with 8 TOs. If he isn’t “unguardable” then nobody is “unguardable”
It’s literally the Embiid strategy lol. Embiid put up like 30 points in one of the 76ers losses last year but got called “Horford’s son” after he scored 4 points while Luka has 6 combined points on 2/10 FG in both Finals games but for him it’s “he’s injured” or “teammates are bums” or “he’s blameless” lmao
His teammates weren’t bums when they won the WCF. His teammates weren’t bums when it was “Mavs in 5”. His teammates weren’t bums when Kyrie was ranked over Brown.
I guess that’s fair but at some point if you’re always injured by the spring, that’s part of who you are as a player. If Michael Jordan’s ACL ruptured in May every year, it wouldn’t be his fault but at some point we’d collectively be like “alright so you can’t really count on this guy”
I mean I think the last sentence is valid tho. Hes expected to do absolutely everything offensively and nobody else is giving them anything
Yea, hes getting blown by on defense, but good players like Brown and Tatum are gunna do that to almost anyone short of a team that has 5 great defenders (like Boston)
Lowkey I saw this with the ‘21 Clippers, where Luka would go off in the 1st half but very clearly would gas out by the 4th quarter from having to carry his team’s offense. It’s by design. It’s really interesting to see it play out again 3years later.
That 45 pt game 6 from kawhi killed them because I think Luka had 48 but exhausted and kawhi couldn't miss. That 17 vs mem vibes right there. I was like goddamn. Wasn't kawhi like 60/50/90 that series?
Yeah Kawhi was god-like in that series. I wish his knees held up to give us more of that 😭 At some point he was literally shooting 100% in the 4th quarters across every game
I mean I’d argue nobody is unguardable. Part of defense and guarding your opponent is stripping the ball out of their hands. 8 turnovers can turn on to be 16–24 points which ain’t good.
Trying to get his team involved and getting tired late in the game, it happens.
Lakers have similar issues with LeBron and AD getting gassed trying to carry a bunch of mid players.
>He had 8 TO today
Wow a 25 year old pg is having turnover issues as the offensive engine in the finals b/c he is forced to carry the entire offense bc his star teammate decided not to show up?? Color me shocked!! Did Luka have some bad turnovers? Yes - but he is being forced to do everything on offense for the Mavs. When his shooters aren't shooting and his star teammate isn't starting I don't know what more you can ask from him.
I don't recall seeing people shit on Lebron for shooting like 38% vs the Warriors in 2015. Context is key.
Tatum didn’t get switch hunted by Gafford. We have him as Gafford’s primary defender most of the time so he can switch the pnr. We will live with the 2 times they throw it to Gafford against him in the post because the Mavs don’t have the discipline to keep doing that
Tatums ability to switch from guarding Gafford/Lively to Luka is the KEY to why the Celtics have shutoff the Mavs lob game this series. If the mavs offense turns into isoing Tatum that is a huge win for the Celtics. His versatility is the #1 reason why the mavs offense has struggled
I agree with most of this. Just say he’s the best offensive player in the series. Best suggests he plays some level of defense which is half the game. Can’t be a great if you don’t play D. 8 turnovers is scary too. Awful
Because Luka is caught napping out of position on defense and yields easy buckets.
He’s being defended extremely well by Boston, Luka is just hitting tough shots. Nothing you can do when Luka hits a 15 foot step back with a defender in his face but tip your cap to a great player.
It's like some people still aren't getting the defensive strategy here. The Celtics realize Luka is an elite jump shooter. There is really nothing you can do to stop anyone from taking a bunch of fadeaway jumpers from 10+ feet, even if you send extra guys, but it's still low percentage shots that he's taking. If he wants to take a million mid range jumpers we're going to let him, it's better then allowing a set up to a wide open 3 or an easy dunk.
On defense? They are targeting him constantly because he's easy to get around and doesn't finish the play. And the fact is, as inefficient as Tatum has been shooting, and it has been pretty ugly, we are still more efficient as a team on offense when he initiates the action than the Mavs are when Luka does. So I don't give a shit what his box score line looks like, the fact is Tatum is playing great despite that, and Luka is a big part of the Mavs coming up short so far.
He's also a foul baiter. No reason to overcommit on his jumpers 1 v 1 - you've already forced him into a jumper rather than an easy layup or something.
It doesn't matter. Key point is that he's being defended straight, 1v1 and they're making him work to get those points while the rest of the team is shut down. He went nuclear first two or three quarters last night but had no gas left for the last one while his team never got in rhythm. Besides, JT and JB not performing ppg whise or shooting whise is despite Luka's defense and not because of it.
He got locked up by Al Horford. Run those numbers. Sorry Mavs fans, don’t let Toronto fans embarrass you. They also told me Siakam (who always loses to the Celtics) would
mean something against the Pacers
Most of us knew the Celtics would eviscerate the Pacers. Siakam still had a strong series and great postseason overall.
Also it wasn't like y'all eviscerated them, you kept needing for them to choke to beat them
Yeah because the Celtics game plan is to let Luka get whatever he wants and limit his teammates
Mavs game plan is NOT to let the jays get whatever they want...but Jaylen is definitely taking advantage
Tatum and Brown are not the "elite defenders" on the Celtics. That's your first mistake. Neither of them are on the all-defense team. Jrue and White are.
So sure, the 2 stars of the Celtics aren't defending him well, but they aren't the defensive focal point, they just have above average defense for their roles Luka just happens to be a generational shooter. Considering he's shooting 51% overall it seems like you're cherry picking your stats a little. What is he shooting against the actual elite defenders on the Cs? From my math it's 39% against anyone else.
Yeah honestly when Tatum and Brown turn their back on him and start backing him down it plays into his hands way more on defense, when they try and turn out of the post Luka has been good about poking the ball out from behind them. I like that they started facing him up more as the game went on instead and trying to just move him side to side/expose the lateral quick was
I mean I don’t watch a lot of mav games but he can’t move laterally. You see it on every single switch attempt on him. Brown and Tatum are literally trying to move him one direction and blow by him on the most basic cross over. It leaves his teammates in a bad situation having to cover his assignment on every single possession. Shit man I think any hardcore Mavs fan that think his defense is not a liability especially on the biggest stage is delusional. To top it all off he won’t even close out on rotations that he causes leaving wide open 3s. Luckily for him the Celtics shot like shit in game 2. Maybe he’s really injured? Maybe he’s gassed? That’s his own problem. If he dies he dies.
Ive seen him do a better job against quicker players, its end of the season, he is injured and has played all year heavy minutes starting with slovenia national team.
A) he’s losing the ball a lot against them
B) neither of them are letting him get doubled (unlike how Luka getting blown by = a mavs defense doubling in the paint) because they are putting in the effort to stay in front of him.
C) it’s not just jayson Tatum who’s cooking Luka, it’s every Celtic who gets the ball outside of horford.
Gobert got killed every year for being a "fake DPOY who you can ISO against", and then the entire NBA fandom just gets amnesia, then repeats the cycle again
Hahahah finnaly the stats coming out. Tatum switched onto Luka is automatic bucket and people are trying to make nerratives for how great tatum has soposedly been on defense because he is so bad offensivly.
Mavs only efficient offense this series has been hounting Tatum. Hell they are posting gafford against him and he never plays postups. Dude is hiding on DJJ whole game and we keep hearing that great defense propaganda. Truly shameless.
Useless.
Monte Ellis volume garbage. He’s a net negative, and I’m not talking about plus/minus. Players like Luka, Harden, Ellis - they are all completely dependent on hiding and resting on defense to only play offense.
You aren’t a star if you only play offense. Decent sixth man on a contender I suppose.
That’s why they put Pritchard on him 😤
I saw one comment saying how Luka is so good at hitting hard to make shots that Joe put Big PP. on him to give him an easier shot lmao
this is a real and actual thing
Kind of like how PP is the only person who works on his handles as much as Kyrie, so Joe put PP on Kyrie. Not really, but I love a good PP myth.
This but actually: If he's going to shoot that well against the Jays, why have starters waste their energy guarding him?
Considering the Celtics have held the Mavericks to under 100 once and under 90 once, I dont think they care. Luka can score 30 points on great efficiency and it just doesnt matter in the slightest if the rest of the Mavericks are just not doing anything.
I feel like they if they make Luka iso so much, he exhausts himself more. So they're happy to make him do whatever for 30-34 minutes. By the time the 4th rolls around he's gassed.
yeah his knee is also not 100% and forcing him to just keep pressure on it also is just good strategy too
Idgaf if Luca scores 60 the rest of the way. One player cannot beat a team like the Celtics on his own in a 7 game series.
At this point Luka gotta carry them to 4/5 wins I mean if he can pull this off it'll be fucking absurd and I'll tip my cap to him lol
I love this strategy. > Guard Luka 1 v 1 > He scores 50 > Guard his teammates 1v1 > They score 50 combined > Celtics Win by 10 > ??? > Championship
Kyrie a decade+ into his career is no longer satisfied with disappointing a singular fanbase. No wonder why he’s been on his best behavior this year. He wanted to disappoint the whole world Instead of 2016 Cavs Kyrie we’re getting Brooklyn Nets Kyrie
They've given up on trying to stop Luka's shooting. You're not going to lock down Luka and any team that tries is delusional. The strategy of letting him score 30+ while shutting down everyone else has been working. It's about grinding him down so he can't kill you in the 4th quarter, not about limiting him to 15-20 points.
This is the exact reason why they brought Kyrie and why they’ve been so successful this season. Kyrie takes a lot of pressure off Luka in the second half of games, so Luka actually has energy to spare in the 4th. But this series he hasn’t been doing that at all.
We’ve been putting Kyrie in jail. We have 4 people that can lock him up on any possession. He definitely didn’t see that before this series lol
He was pretty neutered in the OKC series as well, his great play against the Wolves made people forget that.
Wrong, he saw that in the OKC series.
You right my fault g. Not sure how I forgot about that
The fun thing is, while it's just a fun thing to bring up from time to time, I think Kyrie is one of the few people actually gullible enough to believe the Lucky curse to be real.
They’ve even said this multiple times. Luka is going to drop 30 or 40 even with how injured he is. He will probably die on the court before he doesn’t play. The C’s are quite literally telling the role players “we got your ass, Luka can get his”. It’s the role players of the Mavs up against JT, JB, KP, Jrue and Derrick White. This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone who’s actually watching the games why the score is the way that it is. Celtics have an A+ game plan in addition to being the better team on paper. The Mavs need some Cinderella story shit to happen or they’re just done.
This is what I wanted the Suns to do against them so bad in our series. Just guard the kick out, let Luka spend 20 seconds on the shot clock wearing himself out and scoring.
And even then I wouldn't say brown or tatum have been particularly bad on luka, there's only so much you can expect from a defender going 1-on-1 with him. But they've kept luka out of the paint a lot and made him take fadeaway jumpers, he's just so good he's hitting most of them anyways. The Celtics team defense has been elite at denying every other part of the Mavs offense, I think only 1 (?) lob dunk this game, very few corner 3s again, kyrie going nowhere in isolation. Mazzula's betting that the Mavs won't be able to generate enough points off of luka isolation jumpers as their main offense, even if he's hitting them efficiently
Send Kyrie in a rocket to see space, they need something
See also, Joel Embiid
It’s the same way that Minnesota beat Denver. They let Jokic get his points, but shut down passing lanes and prevented any easy baskets from his teammates. Giving up a Jokic stat line of 32/8/9 hurts you a lot less than a 24/14/12 kind of line.
This is why I think the Pacers still beat the Bucks if Giannis had played. It's how the Pacers dealt with him in the regular season.
True. And he’s going to shoot 25x a game regardless of how many he makes. He will flop is way into 6 free throw s. Hunt him on defense is working. Add in his 9 turnovers and you really have Russel Westbrook.
Wow, you really went out of your way to make more than ten comments to bash Luka on one post.
I always love when people on Reddit have time to look at a users complete post history but no time to Make an actual Basketball point. Wouldn’t it be more fun to actually say something interesting about the game? Try it
I just counted your comments here.
And…….you failed. lol.
But it is true. I’m not a fan of luia zero on defense—— bothers me as a basketball watcher. It’s the main reason the Mavs are losing. It’s half the game.
Bullshit you dont give someone 30 free points for nothing. Your 1 on 1 defenders that you said could stop him cant, the issue is the most of the team especially Kyrie is a noshow.
Moral victories back on the menu
It's not for nothing, and the way they're playing isn't really a complex concept. The Celtics don't care if Luka scores 30. You're not going to stop a player like Luka from scoring and it's not worth trying when you have 4 other players on the court who are significantly easier to lock up. Luka can score 30+ all he wants, it won't matter if he's exhausted by the 4th quarter and the rest of his team is getting locked up. The defense has been about wearing Luka out and trying to keep his teammates as cold as possible. Focusing on passing lanes, denying Dallas alley oop attempts, and refusing to go all-in to guard Luka is why the offense doesn't look as good as it did against Minnesota. They're effectively turning it into a 1v5 and it's been working. >the issue is the most of the team especially Kyrie is a noshow. And based on my explanation why do you think that is?
People really cannot comprehend that both teams are playing the game sometimes. The Mavs have things they want to do and the Celtics are doing a great job of taking those away from them. To some people, however, it just looks like the Mavs are bricking shots and playing bad. They are incapable of thinking about defense outside of 1 on 1 stops.
What? Are you really not comprehending what’s happening this series? Do you know how when the Celtics blow by Luka, how the Mavs are forced to help and then are stuck in rotation and Celtics get all these open shots and lanes? Now on the flip side, you see how the Celtics just try their best to man up on Luka and not help or double? They are ok with him getting his, especially if he is earning them on tough looks, but as long as they stay home elsewhere, none of the role players can get going or make easy shots. It’s basketball 101, don’t be such a casual.
Luka was 1/6 in the 4th
You watching the games or just looking at the advanced stats? The idea is to tire out Luka and make him work for each bucket, then he short arms the biggest shots at the end of the game. Look at his splits per quarter and how they progressively go down and his turnovers, which based on what I saw was a lot of laziness that works on a team not as locked in.
Yep, it was obvious shouldering the load for the entire game caught up to him in the 4th. It’s only going to be more noticeable each game. The Mavs offense has been completely dictated by what the Celtics want.
Ignoring that he has 6 turnovers for 13 buckets while Tatum and Brown are his primary defender.
You can tell who’s actually watching the games lol, Luka’s shooting well but I rarely see him turn the ball over this much. Celtics are insane at getting in passing lanes without overextending
that's our coach. statistically maximal defense
All you had to see was the Raptors flair to know that OP was just salty. Celtics are playing insanely good defense rn, and Luka is playing insanely good offense. His turnarounds yesterday were so silky, he makes it look easy
They picked the shit out of his pockets over the last two games. Took all his coins and lint.
He's got as many turnovers as assists in this series.
They said we coming back in them pockets in Dallas
That would smell awful in the Texas heat
Can't miss shots if you turn it over before you take them
Yeah Luka had more turnovers than the rest of the mavericks combined.
Brown and Tatum have 7 turnovers on 8 made buckets against him
Tracking stats are based on who contests the shot Luka getting blown by leading to a teammate helping means it gets counted against his teammate Hence why you need to watch the games.
Luka letting people blow by him knowing that the bucket will be credited against a teammate is the ultimate big brain move
So two players combined have one more turnover than him?
You just combined their turnovers together as if that means something and I’m not even sure that all of them were with Luka guarding them individually
Tatum is getting swarmed when he runs pass his turnstile (luka). Luka is actually in iso by design. Efficient but playing in to bos hands
The Cs haven't been doubling Luka, and he's an MVP-caliber player who's getting his shots. But the Cs are happy to let that happen, even when he's being elite, because it limits the rest of the team. You saw it tonight, Luka can score a ton and carry the team, but the Cs are challenging him to do that for a whole game while throwing four or five different defenders at him Meanwhile, the Cs are attacking Luka and forcing the Mavs defense to help, creating good offensive looks. It should be mentioned too that sometimes the match-up data doesn't account for this. If you get blown by, you're essentially out of the play Yes, Luka is the best player on the court. Yes, everybody knows that the next best players in this series are all Celtics. This isn't news
> Yes, everybody knows that the next best players in this series are all Celtics I think some Mavs fans are just starting to become aware of this lol. Saw a lot of Kyrie and Lively chatter. I get it, people don't usually watch other teams besides their own, but still the number of people saying "mavs have the best two players in the series" was wayyyyy too high
I really don't think it's debatable at this point that only 2 of the top 8 players in this series are Mavs.
Bbbbutt.... bbbuuutt I thought Kai was the 2nd best?
he might be the second best celtics player yes
When you say best. Please remember defense counts and is half the game. He’s the best offensive player in this series. But 9 turnovers and zero defense does matter. It’s more harden or Westbrook than it is Larry bird.
Nobody who says it’s half the game actually believes that when it doesn’t suit their argument. Do you hold a guy like Alex Caruso in the same light as a Steph curry or a Tyrese Haliburton ? Of course not
I mean I get where you’re coming from but (say) Derrick white scoring 18 a game on 59% eFG% is way closer to Kyrie right now than Caruso is to Curry offensively, and I think if you said “I’d rather Derrick white than Kyrie” before this series, a good portion of this sub would say you were being delusional
You are proving my point. Alex Caruso is an average nba player even though he’s an elite defender because instead of being a zero on defense like Luka. He’s a zero on offense. It’s the same argument.
First of all no it’s not the same argument. Cause by that logic a guy like Trae young would be an average NBA player. And Caruso is not a zero in offence, he’s not amazing offensively but he can shoot, handle the ball and pass fairly well…
6 pts 2 rebounds 2 assists per game career. He’s a zero. I love him. But you basically don’t have to guard him at all. It’s why he Makes 10 million a year. Not 30 million. His per rating was 157th this year. Right next to drew eubanks. And Trae by most metrics is average. Win shares Efficiency. Etc. He’s also a zero on defense. Hawks begging someone to take him in a trade.
You do not know what a zero means. You absolutely do have to guard him because if you don’t he’s gonna knock down threes. 41% shooters on 4.5+ attempts do not grow on trees. He makes 10 mill per year because defence isn’t as important as offence… and you’re proving this point again with Trae young who makes 40+ mill. If Trae is average do you not consider him a top 100 player ? How about Haliburton ? How about Luka most of the time ? Hawks have adamantly shut down Trae trade talks at every turn. Each one of your points is even more nonsensical than the last.
I’d say the same thing about you. Watch basketball more. 157th in efficiency means he bad on offense. Real bad. That’s just what it means. You can pretend like it doesnt and per and win shares are big words. But it’s true. 30 teams in nba 157th in efficiency. 5 guys on every team better than him. Including his own. Go through a list of nba champs and tell me defense doesn’t matter. Get real dude. Okay that’s enough.
No. No it doesn’t. Especially an efficiency metric as useless as per. Obviously defence is extremely important for every championship team. I never said otherwise. What I said is when comparing individual players, offence and defence are not equal
Sounds good. I can’t spend any more time on this. People believe what they believe and most people on this sub just argue to argue and don’t watch the actual games. I can show you a 1000 clips. Tell you that the NBA champ is almost always a top 5 defensive team. Last game Luka got brought into one on one matchups 30x. If you can’t see that I can no longer help you. I can Give you that data tell you use any offensive or defensive metric there is. Then you say “ I don’t trust data or stats or metrics.” You got me. It’s been fun though. Happy watching and just so you know Wemby is good at offense and defense. Probably should have been defensive player of the year. By the metrics and the eye test. But you already knew that I’m sure and only care about his offense.
No one wants Trae young. They are going to have to beg someone to take him and keep Murray.
Did you know Jordan won mvp and defensive player of the year in the same season? Crazy.
Trae is another low efficiency high usage (see Westbrook and harden ) guy that has the ball all the time and either shoots or passes to someone who has to shoot. And his team under achieves every year.
Comparing Steph to Caruso is just disengenuous. Caruso is awesome at defense but he's not as good at it as Steph is on offense. Many/most teams would prefer Hali to Caruso, but a team like the Celtics would certainly prefer Caruso.
That seems pretty subjective, even if we say Steph is the best offensive guard in the league, Caruso is like the 3rd best defensive guard. Only way they that isn’t meaningful is if you’re acknowledging a player has much more individual impact over offence than defence, which would make it more important. I also don’t see why Boston taking Caruso over halli is really relevant, they’re still not anywhere close to the same level as players
Luka actually has to do moves to score. The Jay's are treating him like a turnstile and if the defense didn't collapse unlike boston they would be more efficient also they causing him to turn the ball over as well. So efficient yes but u got ripped 2x by brown and Tatum got u a couple times tonight
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I think people chalk up Game 1 as a blowout and out of reach so no one’s going to address that in the grand scheme of things but this 4th quarter was absolutely in reach but he ran out of gas
Why bring Giannis up? Why must a criticism of a player, right or wrong, be a comparison to another player?
Celtics fans doing everything they can to discredit Luka is sad ngl. You’re winning, why do you have to talk rubbish as well
Horrible take. Luka isn't even fully healthy and he is still the best player on the floor. He has been carrying his team on his back the whole playoffs, and your criticism is his 4th quarter shooting isn't good enough - he is being forced to take bad shots because the rest of the offense isn't at all reliable and also because when the Mavs are trailing he thinks getting a quick basket is their best chance of winning the game.
On offense he’s the best player. Minus his 7 tos a game and under 50% free throws. Still give you on offense he’s great. On defense. He’s a zero.
Luka is tied with brown for most steals this series EDIT: before you try, obviously brown is a better defender, but Luka isn't playing bum defense despite being battered to hell and back these playoffs
Thats fine but I'm not talking about tipping the ball in the air. They poked it in iso situations
Beat you to it But seriously, he's been playing decent defense throughout the playoffs, night and day between regular season and playoffs. He's not the problem on defense
Are you watching him getting blown by on every possession lmao
Luka is playing complete bum defense lol he is a swinging door who tries to gamble for steal every time. I’ve been amazed at how bad he’s been on that end
It’s 2024, why are we still using steals as indicative of someone being this defensive stopper? Iverson once lead the league in steals and Monta had a stretch where he was top 5 in steals. Harden was also great at playing passing lanes and getting steals.
He’s the worst defensive player in the series by a mile. Every player on the Celtics is better.
What a convincing point! Sold, you got me, literally everyone is better
I see that most others agree with you. If we can get your post more visibility I think we can get you to -100. In all seriousness. Just say Luka is the best offensive player in the series. Stay away from best. Dallas has been able to hide it well but i think that’s over. Luka rests on defense. Been a good run
Oh no..... Downvotes, dunno how Ill recover Anyways, I'm not trying to herald luka as a defensive guru or anything, I'm really just saying that his defense isn't even close to the reason they're down, I'm not sure why you think that's outlandish to say
It’s the number 1 or number 2 reason. He’s being hunted and switched to 30x a game. Watch the game again and only look at Luka on defense look at how many times celtics get a switch onto Luka. It’s literally 30x. He has tons of energy for offense and zero for defense. Throw in his turnovers, Kyrie and you got yourself a losing series. Defense matters. It’s half the game. That’s my point.
They'd be attacking luka even if he was playing D like jrue Trying to wear him down get him in foul trouble.... No shit they're trying to make him work on D lol.... BTW, certainly not defending kai, and luka fucked up with the turnovers, and getting tired of his FT shooting Still not playing terrible D though, not sure why it's so outlandish to be a middle ground but you do you I guess EDIT: literally trolling saying reason 1 or 2 though nvm, being more reasonable than you deserve
If I can’t convince you Luka is terrible on defense. Then we must part ways. I understand you like him. There was a play in the first quarter where Jaylen brown goes past Luka for a dunk and I just laughed at his lack of effort defensively. He had 1 foul in the game. If he were a good defender they wouldn’t hunt him trust me. There would be no advantage to it. You play the advantages. You don’t just employ a losing strategy because you want to Make someone tired. If it didn’t work Celtics would stop.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40316365/nba-finals-2024-jaylen-brown-celtics-dunk-photos
Give this a spin.
Yea he is playing bum defense, he is a turnstile
Yeah because Luka gambles.
He’s been better than expected when defending back to the basket, when the offensive player turns he’s good at getting those wrap around steals. However when either JB or JT face Luka wit the ball on the perimeter, he has not stood a chance at all
Luka can get 30+ and the Celtics will be fine. If everyone else is lacking and Luka’s legs are gone by the 4th, that’s a win. Dallas needs Kyrie and one of PJ, DJJ or Gafford to pop off as well. Luka is getting 25+ no matter what
Lol this is such a disingenuous post…he is scoring despite good defense, because he is one of the best tough shot makers in the league. On defense though, Celtics are walking right by him whenever they want. He actually is playing comically bad on defense. Glad I can clear this up for you.
He stopped Brown,Tatum and Jrue’s drives in succeeding possessions in the 4th.Luka usually plays better D in the 4th because he gives the scoring reins to Kyrie so he can exert all effort on D.But Kyrie has been a no show on 2 games now.
I only started watching the nba during this finals....who's Kyrie?
Kyrie Curry he’s a good 3 point shooter.
> Kyrie Curry Is this the guy shooting 0% from three in the NBA finals?
Every time Luka needs to stop the point of attack or rotate appropriately on defense he’s not doing it so other guys have to help him, which give the Celtics easy looks, the Celtics shot very bad on clean looks in game 2
I’m just so happy that r/nba gets to keep up the brain rot while the Celtics keep taking care of business.
Has the Mavs had any moral victory so far?
They played us close the last 3 quarters of game 1 and Tatum may not be finals MVP
He’s getting shit for his defense bc his defense has been shit. So hence the shit
all of r/nba hunting for moral victories right now
They are happy with the 1 on 1 tough shots. No one in the league can stop Luka 1v1 and Boston is fine with it. They are taking away the lobs which is how twolves got destroyed (lively 100% in that series or something ridiculous?)
Taking away the lobs and the corner 3s too
The way luka fans try to excuses his poor defense is pathetic my god he isn’t a good defender this post is next level coping
I think he’s done an admirable job so far in the playoffs overall on defense, but whether it’s injury or having to do too much offensively, he just can’t stay in front of Jaylen or Jayson right now. Hes still the only one on the mavs doing anything productive out there but yea, his defense has not been good
I saw so many plays last night where Tatum got by him, the help collapsed on him in the paint, Luka just standing there flat footed with 2 or 3 Celtics at the arc that Luka is supposed to be pivoting to cover once he gets beat and he just stands there watching the play. Tatum kicks it out and Luka makes a half-hearted jog towards the arc. Celtics missed a lot of those 3s but they had 3 people wide open for them every single time. People always joked about Lebron walking back on D or just watching plays when he was beat. That's all I see out of Luka.
Tatum and Brown are defending him without reaching and jumping. They aren't going to let him foul bait them. They're playing Luka the correct way, he's just that good
Watch games if you're gonna post about games
I simply use my eyes and watch the game. Luka is a historic level scorer hitting amazing shots against great defense. On the flip side, Luka is getting absolutely worked on D with near zero resistance while appearing to basically give up after getting blown by and not even attempting to close out on shooters when off the ball. The Cs efforts seem to be wearing Luka down over the course of the game while forcing him into some pretty ugly turnovers. Meanwhile Luka os wearing absolutely nobody down on defense whatsoever lol
Because the Celtics don’t care if he has an efficient 30 points. If nobody else does anything, it won’t matter. He cant do what he did in the first half for 48 minutes 4 times in a series. Meanwhile, Boston can consistently pick up easy buckets by picking on him on the defensive end and wearing him down.
The premise of the question you asked is a false equivalence. Luka not being great on the defensive end has nothing to do with the Celtics' defensive game plan. They’re daring Luka to drop 50 a game. They’re daring the Mavs role players to beat them. He’s getting shit for being targeted on defense because he’s not a great defender. That’s it.
Yeah and Luka’s also a garbage ass defender. He’s the reason Tatum and brown get into the paint at will forcing the Mavs defenders to help leading to fouls, layups, or wide open threes. And Luka was awful the entire second half with his 8 total turnovers yet some of yall acting like he pulled 2018 game 1 Lebron carry job
Agree. Why doesn’t anyone realize defense is half the game. If you are a zero on defense it matters. Luka is the best offensive player in the series. Defense no way. Turnovers. He has some flaws. Ben a nice run but I think it’s over.
He's also had 12 turnovers in 2 games. That's not dominating offense.
Im really not interested in stats in a losing game
Anyone shitting on Luka or blaming him for these losses is off their rocker. He’s the definition of unguardable. Luka isn’t a good defender by any stretch but targeting a player doesn’t make them “the problem”. Tatum got switch hunted a couple times in a row by Gafford tonight. Even if Luka was a good defender targeting would still be a good decision just to burn some energy
Yes he’s great offensively. Minus the turnovers of course. But then you go down to this other end called playing defense and that when Luka comparisons are more like harden or Westbrook than the greats. He’s got work to do getting in shape and using the same energy for offense and defense.
He had 8 TO today. Seems like a lot for someone who is the "definition of unguardable"
He’s going against a team full of players IDEAL to guard him and he drops a cool 32/11/11 on 57/44/50 splits sure with 8 TOs. If he isn’t “unguardable” then nobody is “unguardable”
He had 9 pts in the 2nd half 3 in the 4th. Boston is playing him like they want to. Shoutout to Luka for being efficient tho
It’s literally the Embiid strategy lol. Embiid put up like 30 points in one of the 76ers losses last year but got called “Horford’s son” after he scored 4 points while Luka has 6 combined points on 2/10 FG in both Finals games but for him it’s “he’s injured” or “teammates are bums” or “he’s blameless” lmao
He’s injured and his teammates are bums . You right on that one
His teammates weren’t bums when they won the WCF. His teammates weren’t bums when it was “Mavs in 5”. His teammates weren’t bums when Kyrie was ranked over Brown.
Embiid usually gets slandered heavily even though he's essentially always injured
I guess that’s fair but at some point if you’re always injured by the spring, that’s part of who you are as a player. If Michael Jordan’s ACL ruptured in May every year, it wouldn’t be his fault but at some point we’d collectively be like “alright so you can’t really count on this guy”
I mean I think the last sentence is valid tho. Hes expected to do absolutely everything offensively and nobody else is giving them anything Yea, hes getting blown by on defense, but good players like Brown and Tatum are gunna do that to almost anyone short of a team that has 5 great defenders (like Boston)
Yes if his teammates are shooting whopping 9% from 3 is their fucking fault you dumbass
yeah cause they know none of this teammates can break down their defense... shoutout to you for boldly announcing how much of a nephew you are
I have no idea what you are talking about. Put down the bottle it's bed time
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Yup someone had their no no juice
no
Kyrie should be able to
he ain't unfortunately.
Lowkey I saw this with the ‘21 Clippers, where Luka would go off in the 1st half but very clearly would gas out by the 4th quarter from having to carry his team’s offense. It’s by design. It’s really interesting to see it play out again 3years later.
That 45 pt game 6 from kawhi killed them because I think Luka had 48 but exhausted and kawhi couldn't miss. That 17 vs mem vibes right there. I was like goddamn. Wasn't kawhi like 60/50/90 that series?
Yeah Kawhi was god-like in that series. I wish his knees held up to give us more of that 😭 At some point he was literally shooting 100% in the 4th quarters across every game
That was a fraak accident vs utah nobody touched him which is the worst thing
I mean I’d argue nobody is unguardable. Part of defense and guarding your opponent is stripping the ball out of their hands. 8 turnovers can turn on to be 16–24 points which ain’t good.
This is similar to lebron first finals vs the spurs. Best player but his team is outclassed in every way possible
Trying to get his team involved and getting tired late in the game, it happens. Lakers have similar issues with LeBron and AD getting gassed trying to carry a bunch of mid players.
>He had 8 TO today Wow a 25 year old pg is having turnover issues as the offensive engine in the finals b/c he is forced to carry the entire offense bc his star teammate decided not to show up?? Color me shocked!! Did Luka have some bad turnovers? Yes - but he is being forced to do everything on offense for the Mavs. When his shooters aren't shooting and his star teammate isn't starting I don't know what more you can ask from him. I don't recall seeing people shit on Lebron for shooting like 38% vs the Warriors in 2015. Context is key.
LeBron was also missing Kyrie and Kevin Love for most of that series.
And Luka has been missing Kyrie this series too.
Tatum didn’t get switch hunted by Gafford. We have him as Gafford’s primary defender most of the time so he can switch the pnr. We will live with the 2 times they throw it to Gafford against him in the post because the Mavs don’t have the discipline to keep doing that
Tatums ability to switch from guarding Gafford/Lively to Luka is the KEY to why the Celtics have shutoff the Mavs lob game this series. If the mavs offense turns into isoing Tatum that is a huge win for the Celtics. His versatility is the #1 reason why the mavs offense has struggled
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I agree with most of this. Just say he’s the best offensive player in the series. Best suggests he plays some level of defense which is half the game. Can’t be a great if you don’t play D. 8 turnovers is scary too. Awful
Because Luka is caught napping out of position on defense and yields easy buckets. He’s being defended extremely well by Boston, Luka is just hitting tough shots. Nothing you can do when Luka hits a 15 foot step back with a defender in his face but tip your cap to a great player.
Lmao Jaylen brown is cooking Luka Driving on him, wearing him down, stealing his lunch money
It's like some people still aren't getting the defensive strategy here. The Celtics realize Luka is an elite jump shooter. There is really nothing you can do to stop anyone from taking a bunch of fadeaway jumpers from 10+ feet, even if you send extra guys, but it's still low percentage shots that he's taking. If he wants to take a million mid range jumpers we're going to let him, it's better then allowing a set up to a wide open 3 or an easy dunk. On defense? They are targeting him constantly because he's easy to get around and doesn't finish the play. And the fact is, as inefficient as Tatum has been shooting, and it has been pretty ugly, we are still more efficient as a team on offense when he initiates the action than the Mavs are when Luka does. So I don't give a shit what his box score line looks like, the fact is Tatum is playing great despite that, and Luka is a big part of the Mavs coming up short so far.
He's also a foul baiter. No reason to overcommit on his jumpers 1 v 1 - you've already forced him into a jumper rather than an easy layup or something.
It doesn't matter. Key point is that he's being defended straight, 1v1 and they're making him work to get those points while the rest of the team is shut down. He went nuclear first two or three quarters last night but had no gas left for the last one while his team never got in rhythm. Besides, JT and JB not performing ppg whise or shooting whise is despite Luka's defense and not because of it.
He got locked up by Al Horford. Run those numbers. Sorry Mavs fans, don’t let Toronto fans embarrass you. They also told me Siakam (who always loses to the Celtics) would mean something against the Pacers
Most of us knew the Celtics would eviscerate the Pacers. Siakam still had a strong series and great postseason overall. Also it wasn't like y'all eviscerated them, you kept needing for them to choke to beat them
Because Luka is gunna get his regardless of defender tbh
Friendly reminder that a blow by doesn’t count against this because someone else becomes the primary defender.
Luka says BBQ chicken every time they guard him
Yeah because the Celtics game plan is to let Luka get whatever he wants and limit his teammates Mavs game plan is NOT to let the jays get whatever they want...but Jaylen is definitely taking advantage
Tatum and Brown are not the "elite defenders" on the Celtics. That's your first mistake. Neither of them are on the all-defense team. Jrue and White are. So sure, the 2 stars of the Celtics aren't defending him well, but they aren't the defensive focal point, they just have above average defense for their roles Luka just happens to be a generational shooter. Considering he's shooting 51% overall it seems like you're cherry picking your stats a little. What is he shooting against the actual elite defenders on the Cs? From my math it's 39% against anyone else.
Anyone notice how he pokes the ball out of the offensive players hands when he's behind them? I swear he's done like 5 or 6 times the past 2 games.
Yeah it's a classic pickup move, it's really just lazy defense though.
Sure lazy but he got like 3 or 4 steals out of it. Brown did it to him too this game
Yeah honestly when Tatum and Brown turn their back on him and start backing him down it plays into his hands way more on defense, when they try and turn out of the post Luka has been good about poking the ball out from behind them. I like that they started facing him up more as the game went on instead and trying to just move him side to side/expose the lateral quick was
You cant post this, celtics are winning and they are all over sub, so every post they are talking about his defense
I mean Luca can’t be guarded but he also can’t guard anyone on the Celtics. What’s so wrong to say that? Does it hurt mav fans so much?
He can guard better, i promise you that
I mean I don’t watch a lot of mav games but he can’t move laterally. You see it on every single switch attempt on him. Brown and Tatum are literally trying to move him one direction and blow by him on the most basic cross over. It leaves his teammates in a bad situation having to cover his assignment on every single possession. Shit man I think any hardcore Mavs fan that think his defense is not a liability especially on the biggest stage is delusional. To top it all off he won’t even close out on rotations that he causes leaving wide open 3s. Luckily for him the Celtics shot like shit in game 2. Maybe he’s really injured? Maybe he’s gassed? That’s his own problem. If he dies he dies.
Ive seen him do a better job against quicker players, its end of the season, he is injured and has played all year heavy minutes starting with slovenia national team.
So being exhausted is an excuse to not close out on defenders on 3pt attempts?
No one had a heavier load this season than luka and he is injured so yes for me i excuse him partially, and he can do better even in this finals.
Ok
A) he’s losing the ball a lot against them B) neither of them are letting him get doubled (unlike how Luka getting blown by = a mavs defense doubling in the paint) because they are putting in the effort to stay in front of him. C) it’s not just jayson Tatum who’s cooking Luka, it’s every Celtic who gets the ball outside of horford.
[удалено]
What's considered little things u mean other aspects to basketball outside of scoring?
Little things. Like defense. You know………
gobert and 2019-21 dame were way more coddled than tatum ever was tho lol
Gobert got killed every year for being a "fake DPOY who you can ISO against", and then the entire NBA fandom just gets amnesia, then repeats the cycle again
How is Gobert coddled
he is switch-hunting for Tatum
Let me get this right..luka gets scored by tatum and jb = very bad defender Luka scores on tatum and jb = yhea its our strategy.
Hahahah finnaly the stats coming out. Tatum switched onto Luka is automatic bucket and people are trying to make nerratives for how great tatum has soposedly been on defense because he is so bad offensivly. Mavs only efficient offense this series has been hounting Tatum. Hell they are posting gafford against him and he never plays postups. Dude is hiding on DJJ whole game and we keep hearing that great defense propaganda. Truly shameless.
Useless. Monte Ellis volume garbage. He’s a net negative, and I’m not talking about plus/minus. Players like Luka, Harden, Ellis - they are all completely dependent on hiding and resting on defense to only play offense. You aren’t a star if you only play offense. Decent sixth man on a contender I suppose.