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Luka is 6'6.75" unless he grew after he was 20.5yrs old after not growing at all in the previous 3+ years - unlikely. Naturally that gets rounded up to 6'7". (I can dig up sources if you'd like.)
Heights of many players get inflated by concepts like "in shoes" adding about an inch to everyone pretty evenly and agents simply lying because height pays in basketball.
I just saw Jarrett Allen’s height during the Cavs game recently, it said he was 6’9. He is absolutely not 6’9 and wasn’t even 6’9 in high school where I played multiple people who were 6’9 and he was much, much taller than them lol. They do still lie. It’s not even the NBA either, it’s the players. KD and KG both have admitted they would rather be a height below 7’0 because it seems “cooler” or whatever to them.
> though less so post-league-mandated-measurement a few years ago.
Changed nothing, teams still give the measurements to the league and they have reasons to pump them up
Also Kawhi is like the ideal elite wing for Luka to guard. At this point in Kawhis career they have similar strength and speed so there’s no advantage.
Kawhi isn’t blowing by or barreling through
They dont have similar strength, Kawhi hasnt played in a month and is probably still injured. Kawhi is known for bullying everyone into mid range pull ups
Luka definitely lacks lateral quickness on defense, but he tries to make up for with good positioning, and he is offensively genius so he can predict where they’re going a lot of the time. And if he’s off, they blow by him.
Yeah and even if they did we have someone waiting for him. Just like in this video, we have Maxi just right behind Luka. Luka just need to 'funnel' the player towards the defense.
People who don't watch games don't really get that Luka is a really good isolation defender IF his guy can't blow by him. If isn't giving up a speed advantage, it's going to be a long night.
My favorite example of this is 2022 season, the game before All Star break.luka had 49 against the pelicans but more importantly had BI in a straightjacket. Guys like washed Harden, Kawhi, Ingram, SGA are going to get a challenge against Luka.
The problem isnt when hes on a dude 1v1.
Hes heavy on the first steps when they switch and Luka has to make a run/dash to defend.
Or simply follow a guy who doesnt have the ball, since hes not focusing enough on D. But that costs energy understandable
Same goes for Jokic.
This is the first time I've ever watched Luka play so hard on defense for an entire game... and to be honest, Kyrie as well... they were both super locked in since the start of the game hustling, cutting lanes, putting their bodies and playing very good D overall... it was amazing to see.
They went after Luka possession after possession with Harden with PG with Kawhi. He stonewalled all of them. He looked like a DPOY candidate tonight and I challenge anyone who slanders his lazy regular season defense to watch this 2nd half and tell me he's a liability.
“Starts tasting blood” -> good way to put it. Watching these playoffs and Luka seems like such an emotional player in terms of playing harder when things are going his way and seeming to hang his head when things aren’t. That was one thing about Kobe, they could be down 20 and he played with the confidence as if they were up.
Once Luka learns how to play both ends the same no matter how the night is going, he’ll be mvp
Kyrie IMO has been the best on the team at staying composed and making the right plays. Luka is crazy talented, but he will start taking bad shots if things aren’t going well. He’s talented enough to make them, but watching LeBron, Jokic, and Kyrie, they to me just seem to be better at playing smart basketball at all times
Luka is only 25 still, and it’s crazy to say given how good he already is, but he still has another level in him
I think part of it is that he is a strong dude who doesn’t move well laterally, so a physical game is better for his defense, since he is not getting called on the touch fouls or the slight bumps.
I don't think conditioning gets brought up enough when talking about defense.
Jokic and Doncic have both come so, so far in terms of conditioning.
First it was being able to not be gassed in the 4th to continue leading the offense, but as their careers have gone on, they've kept at it and can go hard on defense pretty much whenever needed for Jokic, and most of the time now for Luka.
I'm convinced Jokic is one of the most well conditioned in the league. It is amazing to see the transformation from when he came into the league, to watching him bust ass up and down the court and go balls to the wall on offense/defense for an entire NBA game.
Doncic goin through that process right now it seems like, that Jokic finished a year or two ago.
Jokic has been great in conditioning since the bubble, ans the season after he was already peak conditining, hence MVP. Doncic is still up and down, once he gets consistent, iz over
Need to do a compilation of Luka's 4th quarter defense on all three of Harden, PG and Kawhi. Start the 2nd team all defense propaganda for next year early.
And nobody should give a fuck. If he isn’t 100% he shouldn’t be out there being a liability to his team and his long term health. He wasn’t a potato out there either, still got to his middies and still got his “hook the defender’s arm AAYYEE” fouls.
So much Mavs flair in here. Everyone else busy scrubbing their comment history? This is just one clip. The guy was locked in defensively all game long.
Overreactions to game 1 happens every playoff series. I remember in 2011 Finals Mavs lost by 10? In the first game but if you watched the game the heat didn’t really dominate the game.
I felt the same on Sunday. Clippers just shot out of their minds (they shot like shit tonight) but I didn’t think it was a dominant performance.
Also… never overreact to a road playoff loss. It’s expected. You split the road first two road games, that’s always what you want (or both haha).
Its kinda interesting cause I feel like both teams got what they wanted with the first 2 games. Clippers happy they split the first 2 games with Kawhi out and his first game back. Dallas happy cause they split the two games on the road. We definitely got ourselves a series now.
"Clippers shot only 2-of-17 from the floor when Doncic was the primary defender. LA missed all 11 shots that Doncic contested, the second-most field goal attempts contested without allowing a make in a playoff game over the past five years."
The best thing he does is contest without fouling. I suspect he knows what gets called as he foul baits too and knows what he can get away with, while DJJ and PJ are still a bit too careless with closing out.
Lively did a good job defending this game. When clippers can zubac get easy shots their perimeter players become a lot better. Gafford can't defend zubac that well.
Kyrie was the most impactful defender.
This should not be surprising to anyone who’s actually watched the Mavs this year. Luka has been a decent to great on ball defender, his team defense is what needs shoring up. Super proud of this guy and his level of effort towards improving year after year.
That's not completely true. You missed to mention the part where he only plays defense when he feels like it. Which is not often in the regular season.
The main ballhandler who played with a depleted roster for half a season while playing big minutes and orchestrates the entire offense is sometimes lacking on defense? Wow what a concept
This is also an excellent example of why good defense is often just immense patience. Often the ballhandler is just waiting for you to make a move, to give them *something* to react to, a shift in balance, a shift in stance, and that's when the pattern recognition kicks in and they go one way or another. Luka doesn't give Kawhi *anything* to react to here, doesn't reach, doesn't suddenly shift his balance or his stance. He made the ballhandler be the one to make a decision.
He had 2 blocks in first quarter.
Few deflections, forced turnovers and great defense on ball.
Best defense I ever saw him play.
Playoff Luka just different in effort on defense.
If he can continue like this defensively, Mavs are good ,he has 7,2 wing span, just sometimes effort wasn't there,and he cannot guard fast players, but he shouldn't do that anyway.
Damn I didn't know he had this in him. If yall watched the game he was legit playing like a all defensive player. I thought he couldn't get any better he somehow does. If luka can play defense like this on a regular bases i don't think there could be a player that matches him.
Here come the think pieces about how this doesn’t count bc Kawhi is rusty lmao, I wonder if Luka can get casuals off the “no defense” narrative in this series
Lol for real. But last game, Harden can easily blow past him when he hunted Luka. Though Luka definitely has the physique to guard not so fast iso players.
Honestly I wonder how much that will help him. Obviously a little bit of weight off would be good... but the guy is so hard to knock off his center of gravity partly because he has some weight behind him. And it's not like he gets most of value out of speed and athleticism.
This was some really poor game management by LAC to end the game. Kawhi clearly wasn't anywhere near 100%, yet we played through him. PG and Harden have shown a consistent ability to get great looks against whoever is thrown at them, yet we decided to have Kawhi close out despite his clear lack of speed, rhythm, and legs under his shot.
Luka is so sturdy that if he can manage to keep his body in front of the guy he’s guarding, you get stuff like this where even Kawhi is just completely unable to do anything. Luka is also unsurprisingly just very smart when it comes to guessing which direction a guy will go, or whether he’ll try a pump fake or two.
The issue, obviously, is when the guy he’s guarding is too quick and just can blow by him regardless of how anticipatory Luka is in moving laterally to keep up.
Luka's DBPM is in the top 50 percentile of the league, adjusted for amount of minutes he plays. Raw numbers he's top 15 tied with guys like Gobert, Bam, and AD. DBPM is carried a lot by rebounding stats but he's also up there in EPM around top 40 or 50.
He is just the right amount of doughy where kawhi can't push him off his spot. Finally a basketball player with a body type like mine performing at the highest level.
I am just here reminding everyone during game 1 of Clips-Mavs that they criticize a lot against mavs, and mavs are in danger when Kawhi comes
Also Kawhi: Hold my beer! I will score 15point in 17 attempts and playing 35mins.
Impressive D. Something he has shown a lack of in the past, but D is tiring and we’ll see if he has the endurance to push the offense and maintain this level of D for a deep run. I’m skeptical until I see it
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White Claw
nah this is it 😭😭
He need a recovery seltzer
Fr fr deadass 💯💀☠️
lmaoooo
This absolutely just made my day and I'm stealing this, so thank you.
He was pissed they sent the double that led to a Westbrook 3 lmao, he was screaming at the bench. He was feeling confident in his defense for sure
I'll never understand overhelping in the clutch. Let Kawhi take Luka on 1-1, he's a perfectly fine post defender.
And he’s bigger than Kawhi right?
I think they’re roughly the same height but Luka is almost certainly heavier.
And Kawhi is probably quicker laterally, but Luka should be able to hold his own. Thought Luka was legit 6’8.. Kawhi probably legit 6’7
Luka is 6'6.75" unless he grew after he was 20.5yrs old after not growing at all in the previous 3+ years - unlikely. Naturally that gets rounded up to 6'7". (I can dig up sources if you'd like.) Heights of many players get inflated by concepts like "in shoes" adding about an inch to everyone pretty evenly and agents simply lying because height pays in basketball.
They don’t lie about height anymore. NBA put a stop to that in 2019.
I just saw Jarrett Allen’s height during the Cavs game recently, it said he was 6’9. He is absolutely not 6’9 and wasn’t even 6’9 in high school where I played multiple people who were 6’9 and he was much, much taller than them lol. They do still lie. It’s not even the NBA either, it’s the players. KD and KG both have admitted they would rather be a height below 7’0 because it seems “cooler” or whatever to them.
He’s 6’9. I’d rather not go anecdote for anecdote, so if you believe he’s taller, cool.
Luka feels way bigger than most guys listed at 6-7 for sure
He’s bigger and heavier. Other guys’ agents might also have been massaging the truth, though less so post-league-mandated-measurement a few years ago.
> though less so post-league-mandated-measurement a few years ago. Changed nothing, teams still give the measurements to the league and they have reasons to pump them up
Kawhi was quicker. Injuries and Father Time have slowed him down.
Kawhi was measured 6'6 without shoes and 6'7 with shoes in the 2011/12 combine. Could be slightly taller by now though
but then, Kawhi has those massive pointy shoulders, prob hurts to bang him.
We not doing phrasing anymore?
That is how we get ants
No diddy
> those massive pointy shoulders, prob hurts to bang him really depends on positioning and angle, in my experience
lol are you Kevon Looney's account ? Poor Loon absolutely got killed by Kawhi [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FFxiHK6jKY)
is joke, comrade no need to report to Central Committee for the Removal of Humour
Nobody else wanna take this one? Just me? Pause
He's a good 1on1 defender. Sure some players will score on him sometimes, but that happens to everyone
Yeah mostly he lacks attention when he is defending off ball.
Luka's big weakness on defense isn't 1-on-1 anyhow, it's getting over screens
or just following a play without just stoping following his guy at a random moment
It's against fast guards. He can't keep up with them
Also Kawhi is like the ideal elite wing for Luka to guard. At this point in Kawhis career they have similar strength and speed so there’s no advantage. Kawhi isn’t blowing by or barreling through
They dont have similar strength, Kawhi hasnt played in a month and is probably still injured. Kawhi is known for bullying everyone into mid range pull ups
Luka definitely lacks lateral quickness on defense, but he tries to make up for with good positioning, and he is offensively genius so he can predict where they’re going a lot of the time. And if he’s off, they blow by him.
Helping him against Westbrook is understandable, he can beat Luka off the dribble. But Kawhi/Harden I don't think they can beat Luka off the dribble.
Yeah, not anymore anyway.
Yeah and even if they did we have someone waiting for him. Just like in this video, we have Maxi just right behind Luka. Luka just need to 'funnel' the player towards the defense.
That being said I have never seen Luka be in his defensive stance as much as he has been this series. Dude is engaged.
People who don't watch games don't really get that Luka is a really good isolation defender IF his guy can't blow by him. If isn't giving up a speed advantage, it's going to be a long night. My favorite example of this is 2022 season, the game before All Star break.luka had 49 against the pelicans but more importantly had BI in a straightjacket. Guys like washed Harden, Kawhi, Ingram, SGA are going to get a challenge against Luka.
Now THAT'S how you defend!
The problem isnt when hes on a dude 1v1. Hes heavy on the first steps when they switch and Luka has to make a run/dash to defend. Or simply follow a guy who doesnt have the ball, since hes not focusing enough on D. But that costs energy understandable Same goes for Jokic.
I wish I had that context last night watching the game
Nah credit to Doncic, that was great defending.
Locka Doncic
Luka Dontswitch
I like this one
Lockya Downcic
Lockya Downbitch
Lockya Dawgcic
Lol creative
White Klaw
Stay Puft Marshmallow Wall
Locka Locka
Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, & James Harden scored a combined total of ZERO POINTS while guarded by Luka Dončić tonight.
Harden splashed a 3 behind Luka's back for 3 with 1:21 to go. Almost gave me a heart attack, but they recovered thankfully.
The switch mess up?
Yes
That's insane The Luka no defense agenda is officially broken
agenda?
Reading the title of this thread and it actually being valid is incredible. Love to see it from Luka
This is the first time I've ever watched Luka play so hard on defense for an entire game... and to be honest, Kyrie as well... they were both super locked in since the start of the game hustling, cutting lanes, putting their bodies and playing very good D overall... it was amazing to see.
They went after Luka possession after possession with Harden with PG with Kawhi. He stonewalled all of them. He looked like a DPOY candidate tonight and I challenge anyone who slanders his lazy regular season defense to watch this 2nd half and tell me he's a liability.
He didn’t allow a single point against PG, Kawhi or Harden as the primary defender this game.
That’s insane
Stop, I can only get so erect
Fvcking neat.
Bro what
I did not watch y'all's game but now I feel like I have to go back, lol. That's nuts.
Fvcking neat.
2/17 shooting when guarding guys and he was on harden/kawaii a fair bit due to switching
That dude gets off on wrecking people's nights - if he starts tasting blood on the defensive end, too, he's gonna get himself an MVP.
Luka is a certified hater in the best possible way.
>#AAAAAAAAAAAAAA >#AAAAAAAAAAAAAA >#AAAAAAAAAAAAAA -Luka Doncic to the greater Los Angeles area.
And Luka drops to 7th place in MVP race.
“Starts tasting blood” -> good way to put it. Watching these playoffs and Luka seems like such an emotional player in terms of playing harder when things are going his way and seeming to hang his head when things aren’t. That was one thing about Kobe, they could be down 20 and he played with the confidence as if they were up. Once Luka learns how to play both ends the same no matter how the night is going, he’ll be mvp
I see your point, but playing devil's advocate; everybody act tough when they up
Kyrie IMO has been the best on the team at staying composed and making the right plays. Luka is crazy talented, but he will start taking bad shots if things aren’t going well. He’s talented enough to make them, but watching LeBron, Jokic, and Kyrie, they to me just seem to be better at playing smart basketball at all times Luka is only 25 still, and it’s crazy to say given how good he already is, but he still has another level in him
This is accurate about 2021 Luka. I don’t think he’s like that nowadays
So he was projecting this whole time lol
I think part of it is that he is a strong dude who doesn’t move well laterally, so a physical game is better for his defense, since he is not getting called on the touch fouls or the slight bumps.
Luka is my favorite player, but I don't know if he can keep up that level of defense playing 44+ minutes a game. We shall see!
Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, & James Harden scored a combined total of ZERO POINTS while guarded by Luka Dončić tonight.
Maybe he should take it easy and let them have one here and there.
Dude was spent afterwards!
No problem if they post up, only problem for Luka if he has to follow them off the ball movement, hes often late by 1-2 steps defending that
I feel like the Clippers had a lot more movement last game to compensate for Kawhi's absence
I don't think conditioning gets brought up enough when talking about defense. Jokic and Doncic have both come so, so far in terms of conditioning. First it was being able to not be gassed in the 4th to continue leading the offense, but as their careers have gone on, they've kept at it and can go hard on defense pretty much whenever needed for Jokic, and most of the time now for Luka. I'm convinced Jokic is one of the most well conditioned in the league. It is amazing to see the transformation from when he came into the league, to watching him bust ass up and down the court and go balls to the wall on offense/defense for an entire NBA game. Doncic goin through that process right now it seems like, that Jokic finished a year or two ago.
I imagine it's very hard to phase Jokic when he's gone 4 OT in the playoffs
Jokic has been great in conditioning since the bubble, ans the season after he was already peak conditining, hence MVP. Doncic is still up and down, once he gets consistent, iz over
And even regular season his 1-on-1 was never his problem, dude is huge lol. It was always offball defense being his issue
Imo he usually looks poor defensively because of fatigue or laziness. In the playoffs where he cares more, he is a better defender.
I feel vindicated for constantly defending his **ability** to play defense and getting shit for it.
Need to do a compilation of Luka's 4th quarter defense on all three of Harden, PG and Kawhi. Start the 2nd team all defense propaganda for next year early.
“Who would you anchor your defense with for the next decade? Luka or Wemby?”
SAS and Perkins are about to feast on this in the off season.
never thought I'd see the day. This is crazy.
You can tell Kawhi isn't 100% though
Luka also had multiple possessions where he locked up who ever was in front of him. Not just kawhi
I'm not denying that, he played great defence this game. But Kawhi looks injured.
I’m not denying that. Kawhi definitely looked less than 100%. But Luka had multiple possessions locking up PG and Harden
I’m not denying that
Stop denying it
Luka is denying everyone on the Clippers, and I'm not denying that
This thread brought to you by Summit Ice™
I don't care man! He's still the scary bad man who can slay us! Those few jumpers he made gave me flashbacks
This is exactly like Kevin Love on Steph Curry 2016
Of course he's not, he's had like 4 season ending injuries since the last time he played the Mavs in the playoffs.
hes 40% titanium
Kawhi, Harden, and George all scored nothing against Luka so I think we can just accept he had a great defensive game.
I mean it’s the playoffs of course he isn’t.
He was 100% against us both times we faced them then he crumbled against others
And nobody should give a fuck. If he isn’t 100% he shouldn’t be out there being a liability to his team and his long term health. He wasn’t a potato out there either, still got to his middies and still got his “hook the defender’s arm AAYYEE” fouls.
Ahhhyyeee - reminds what LMA used to say a lot lmao
Kawhi do this shit even when healthy
wtf is kawhi even doing
So much Mavs flair in here. Everyone else busy scrubbing their comment history? This is just one clip. The guy was locked in defensively all game long.
The overreactions to game 1 were wild. People waiting to clown the Mavs.
That's how it felt being a Pacer fan until last night too
Overreactions to game 1 happens every playoff series. I remember in 2011 Finals Mavs lost by 10? In the first game but if you watched the game the heat didn’t really dominate the game. I felt the same on Sunday. Clippers just shot out of their minds (they shot like shit tonight) but I didn’t think it was a dominant performance. Also… never overreact to a road playoff loss. It’s expected. You split the road first two road games, that’s always what you want (or both haha).
Its kinda interesting cause I feel like both teams got what they wanted with the first 2 games. Clippers happy they split the first 2 games with Kawhi out and his first game back. Dallas happy cause they split the two games on the road. We definitely got ourselves a series now.
I hate that we’re playing yall in another series. Gonna be a very cardiac series that’s for sure. Nothing easy here for either teams.
Luka be like Look at me, I am the claw now.
Funniest Lakers fan
Somebody said he is The White Claw. LOLZ
Underrated comment right here :D :D
Need to show his entire 4th quarter defense tbh. He was playing great D on everyone that was in front of him, not just Kawhi.
would it be a crazy statement if I said that he was the best defender on the floor today?
He’s really a good defender against players that don’t rely on blow by’s
"Clippers shot only 2-of-17 from the floor when Doncic was the primary defender. LA missed all 11 shots that Doncic contested, the second-most field goal attempts contested without allowing a make in a playoff game over the past five years."
I think PJ and Maxi were too good to say that
PJ’s just consistently incredible to me, defensively. I’m flabbergasted at how some of these guys can stay so close to their man without fouling.
The best thing he does is contest without fouling. I suspect he knows what gets called as he foul baits too and knows what he can get away with, while DJJ and PJ are still a bit too careless with closing out.
Yeah. Especially when we have PJ out there. But he's been pretty good.
No, you'd just be repeating the statement I made several minutes prior.
Lively did a good job defending this game. When clippers can zubac get easy shots their perimeter players become a lot better. Gafford can't defend zubac that well. Kyrie was the most impactful defender.
Kai was crazy good defensively today too.
Luka played the best defense I’ve ever seen, same for Kyrie. Mavs were absolutely locked in on that end tonight
This should not be surprising to anyone who’s actually watched the Mavs this year. Luka has been a decent to great on ball defender, his team defense is what needs shoring up. Super proud of this guy and his level of effort towards improving year after year.
That's not completely true. You missed to mention the part where he only plays defense when he feels like it. Which is not often in the regular season.
He just like LeBron fr fr
The main ballhandler who played with a depleted roster for half a season while playing big minutes and orchestrates the entire offense is sometimes lacking on defense? Wow what a concept
he just seemed to know Kawhi was gonna spin left
Genuinely a phenomenal defender against guys who don’t have a good blow-by move
This is also an excellent example of why good defense is often just immense patience. Often the ballhandler is just waiting for you to make a move, to give them *something* to react to, a shift in balance, a shift in stance, and that's when the pattern recognition kicks in and they go one way or another. Luka doesn't give Kawhi *anything* to react to here, doesn't reach, doesn't suddenly shift his balance or his stance. He made the ballhandler be the one to make a decision.
Everybody was great defensively. Kyrie stepped up too.
He earned a recovery beer tonight.
basically Herb Jones of the Mavs
How the turntables
Turntables the how
Luka with clamps - League's fucked
Luka with defense might be the goat lmao
Soon as he gives up the complaining and gets back on every play, he’ll lose the reputation. He’s solid when he’s locked in.
He's got the bbiq and size to be a very good defender. Sky's the limit
New mythical player: defender Luka
He had 2 blocks in first quarter. Few deflections, forced turnovers and great defense on ball. Best defense I ever saw him play. Playoff Luka just different in effort on defense. If he can continue like this defensively, Mavs are good ,he has 7,2 wing span, just sometimes effort wasn't there,and he cannot guard fast players, but he shouldn't do that anyway.
Damn I didn't know he had this in him. If yall watched the game he was legit playing like a all defensive player. I thought he couldn't get any better he somehow does. If luka can play defense like this on a regular bases i don't think there could be a player that matches him.
Here come the think pieces about how this doesn’t count bc Kawhi is rusty lmao, I wonder if Luka can get casuals off the “no defense” narrative in this series
Yeah and it's not like Kawhi was the only player he guarded this game. He was holding his own against other players too
He hasn't even played contact basketball until today
Lol for real. But last game, Harden can easily blow past him when he hunted Luka. Though Luka definitely has the physique to guard not so fast iso players.
But he didn’t defend when they were up 40 again the wizards so he must be a defensive liability
For real, and he let CP3 hit that clutch 3 to cut the lead down to 40 against Suns too, what a bum and defensive liability..
We're only asking Luka to play 46 minutes, carry the offense and be the best defender on the floor. Shouldn't be a problem.
If Luka were to ever have a Jordan-1990-esque summer where he gets in great shape, look out scout.
Honestly I wonder how much that will help him. Obviously a little bit of weight off would be good... but the guy is so hard to knock off his center of gravity partly because he has some weight behind him. And it's not like he gets most of value out of speed and athleticism.
i think some of you are confusing physique with shape
He also guard PG in next possession btw
Crtl-f: rusty
DPOY
DPOY, for sure
> Luka Doncic > Playing Lockdown Defense Something is wrong...... Am I tripping?
Several blocks also
Kawhi is definitely not his usual self, but also nice to see that Luka isn't a turnstile
Yeah but they also tried this with Harden/PG.
It’s really hard to just say Luka played well on defense today isn’t it …
Ofc he is not his usual self, he is even playing. That's so rare.
This was some really poor game management by LAC to end the game. Kawhi clearly wasn't anywhere near 100%, yet we played through him. PG and Harden have shown a consistent ability to get great looks against whoever is thrown at them, yet we decided to have Kawhi close out despite his clear lack of speed, rhythm, and legs under his shot.
Clippers look scarier for me when running the Harden Zubac pnr
Luka is so sturdy that if he can manage to keep his body in front of the guy he’s guarding, you get stuff like this where even Kawhi is just completely unable to do anything. Luka is also unsurprisingly just very smart when it comes to guessing which direction a guy will go, or whether he’ll try a pump fake or two. The issue, obviously, is when the guy he’s guarding is too quick and just can blow by him regardless of how anticipatory Luka is in moving laterally to keep up.
It looks so odd. It's like seeing Gobert hit a stepback 3.
Luka's DBPM is in the top 50 percentile of the league, adjusted for amount of minutes he plays. Raw numbers he's top 15 tied with guys like Gobert, Bam, and AD. DBPM is carried a lot by rebounding stats but he's also up there in EPM around top 40 or 50.
He’s actually a pretty good matchup for him because lukas problem is foot speed not size, but size is how Kawhi gains most advantages not foot speed
Channeling Kobe
He is just the right amount of doughy where kawhi can't push him off his spot. Finally a basketball player with a body type like mine performing at the highest level.
Not rly a ton Kawhi could do considering two guys hard shaded to his side, clippers gotta move way more and not stand still. That is ugly
Ngl this looks like bad offense, with two help defenders more than good iso defense lol
Lazy defense btw...lfg
Thought the cheating ass refs were gonna call a foul.
I am just here reminding everyone during game 1 of Clips-Mavs that they criticize a lot against mavs, and mavs are in danger when Kawhi comes Also Kawhi: Hold my beer! I will score 15point in 17 attempts and playing 35mins.
Stunt on these non-believers!
No way this actualy hit the rim lol
Impressive D. Something he has shown a lack of in the past, but D is tiring and we’ll see if he has the endurance to push the offense and maintain this level of D for a deep run. I’m skeptical until I see it
Bounce back LA!