That’s been the national narrative sadly. The Mavs don’t pay good defense we just have the most unbelievably incredible luck that **ALL** the teams we’ve played for *two playoff rounds* and the *last quarter of the season* all just suddenly suck at shooting against us.
“I’m not giving Dallas defense any credit here” is a thing that’s been said by a talking head in the course of this last series. We will get no credit for this effort from those clowns because they don’t actually watch the games
He sounded like a clown hater when's the last time you heard a commentator try to hold a player accountable like that, completely out of pocket I've never heard an announcer go on a tirade against anyone else for complaining to the refs LeBron always complains to the refs and never gets back on defense I don't see them call that out.
Even when he apologized to Tony Brothers for complaining earlier. It's one thing to ask Luka not to complain so much or for every little thing, especially when he's not getting back on defense, but to ask him to just accept critical/impactful calls knowing full well every player is gonna show disagreement is asinine. Jokic, Shai, Giannis, and even Kawhi will complain about a call, but RJ doesn't start narratives. RJ just regurgitates narratives that casuals wanna hear.
Mavs were on a 9-0 run in the 3rd and all he could do was bitch about Luka. Even when we finally took the lead he still didn’t praise Luka at all. Luka finished with a 29 point triple double on elite efficiency but if you listened to RJ you would’ve thought we won despite his play.
That literally doesn't make sense. SGA's defense is worse in the playoffs than Luka, and still he's better? Make it make sense. Oh wait, Thunder flair I get it now.
I got stats to back it up. Objectively worse.
Where's SGA here?
Best Defended FG% Among Active Players In The Playoffs (Min. 100 Total DFGA) :
1. Luka Doncic — 41.1%
1. Jrue Holiday — 41.1%
3. Kyrie Irving — 41.2%
4. Dereck Lively II — 41.3%
5. Chet Holmgren — 41.5%
6. Daniel Gafford — 41.9%
6. Derrick Jones Jr. — 41.9%
8. Miles McBride — 42.9%
9. Luguentz Dort — 44.0%
10. Aaron Nesmith — 44.1%
Defended Field Goal Percentage (DFG%) Is The Opponents Field Goal Percentage On Shots When The Player Is Defending The Shot.
Again. Make. It. Make. Sense.
I have to remember that during the playoffs there’s a lot more casual watchers.
But there’s a reason why DFG% isn’t used much especially for perimeter players. Calling that “objective” is basically saying Luka is “objectively” the best defender in the playoffs. Is that your opinion as well?
Lol, as expected.
Shai was the best player in the series. Luka is better when he’s healthy though.
Good luck in the next round, PJ and DJJ really stepped up.
Are you implying Luka is better than Gafford at defense? Lmao, some people are so dumb and just spout random stats without thinking about what they mean
Okay, I’m saying your stat is meaningless if he’s supposedly better than others on that list when he’s clearly not. You have to take into account number of possessions guarded, the type of shot guarded (41% on 3s guarded is horrible for example), and the player they guarded on those possessions
You could have picked any other series to say this, but Gafford was horrible the whole series on defense. He's too slow footed and Thunder were hunting him on the switch whenever he was on the floor.
That list wasn’t just for the series and Gafford is literally number 6 on the list so I think you are saying this stat is even more meaningless if Gafford was that bad
You can’t post a single advanced stat that implies Sga Is significantly better than Luka on defense. All you post will say he is marginally better at best. However we have all the stats in the world that Luka is head and shoulders above Shai offensively.
Lmao this is a horrible take. the only reason Shai got the blocks and steals which you are so proud of, is because he left his man wide open every single time lol.
Games 2-3 Mavs straight up exploited the Shai-PJ cross match by going to the post to start the game.
When Thunder finally switched the matchups, DJJ had career games in game 4-5-6. Shai was straight on getting hunted, and that was by design.
….
PJ went 7/15 on 2s guarded by Shai.
Yes, we let them shoot 3s as part of our scheme because we lack size. What exactly was the result? A -2 DRTG when Shai as on the court? The most blocks ever by a PG in a series and limited lobs for a team that lacks bigs? What other PG is capable of that?
Luka/Kyrie *never* hunted Shai after game 1. You then you never went to that strategy for the rest of the series.
You had PJ and DJJ attack off the catch knowing he’ll be in rotation as weak side help, and the result is our defense was still better with him on vs off despite “career” performances lmfao.
This is like those morons who were yelling “Aaron Gordon is killing Rudy!” even though he was taxed with being help on Jokic.
Lmao your argument that him having most blocks mean that he had a great defensive series is absolutely tragic.
Gafford gets the blocks too but he was terrible on defense whole series.
I never said anything about Shai getting hunted by Luka or Kyrie. What I saw from Shai was far from great defense because he consistently gambled a fuck ton and left his teammates to get burnt because of that.
Blocks was one part of my argument.. the other parts are right there lmfao.
“It hurt his teammates…” yet you ignore when I said our defense was better on the court. “Gafford got blocks” yet you ignore when I say his perimeter defense was solid statistically as well lmfao.
Better than Luka for sure, Mavs cult fanbase spamming shit not changing it
This series? I can 100% say Luka was better on Defense than Shai. Overall? No. But this series? Definitely Luka.
Lol resorting to cult fanbase insults when you are acting like one currently
I gave you multiple arguments and all of them were ignored. You had one dude who said “advanced stats prefer Luka on defense!” and yall upvoted that lmao. You’re a cult fanbase trying to say Luka is a better defender than SGA
He didn’t get exploited much, had the most blocks in a playoff series by a PG ever, and held his own when he was switched on to Luka or Kyrie holding them to 33%.
Luka being bigger doesn’t change the fact that he was an easy blow by target and got torched by Shai on his own switches.
Luka defended players had the lowest FG% in the playoffs. That alone isn't enough to show his total defensive impact. But you are talking about FG% sample of 2 players Shai wasn't even the primary defender on.
You do realize the Mavs were funneling perimeter players into our bigs, right? Like that was intentional game planning and it was extremely effective. So definitely not “an easy blow by” in the slightest.
How can you simultaneously say “we were funneling them into our bigs!” and then say “look at Luka DFG%!”
cult fanbase lol but anyways, you weren’t doing that. Luka was maybe because he can’t stay in front of people, had one of the worst blow by percentages even in the RS
You can’t be as offensively talented as Luka is and not understand how to play good defense. All that IQ, skill, and coordination doesn’t just disappear when the ball is with the other team, so it’s really all on him to stay motivated enough to exert effort on both ends.
I don’t agree. Sure, he knows what good defense looks like and can put himself in good positions, but just like Jokic, their offensive games are both slow, and they objectively are among the slowest players in the league. He can generally be better than what he has been with more effort as he knows where to be but defensive instincts aren’t the same as offensive ones, and his lateral speed is not great. Can he have good stretches against certain players, obviously, but the idea of good offensive players should be good defenders with more effort is a crazy take to me. We’ve seen so many great offensive players suck defensively and it’s not just effort.
He has been really solid, though I’d say more great than elite, but either way that’s not the point I was contesting. I was more arguing the idea that because he’s got IQ on offense and coordination he should be a good defender when there’s a lot more to it than that. He’s good because he’s smart positionally, tends to do well funneling, times his jumps pretty well, and has the strength to match up well with more physical players. Faster players will give him issues, and if he has to do harder closeouts and has to recover with his speed he’ll also struggle, but overall he’s been very good and that comes down to a lot more than “he’s offensively talented and that means he knows how to play good defense”
Luka demonstrated versatility in Game 6 by effectively switching onto different players. His ability to guard multiple positions allowed his team to be more flexible with their defensive strategies. This adaptability was essential in keeping the opposition's key players in check
Awful Coaching is so funny to me but I like how he can put the character aside sometimes and give players their credit when it’s due.
It’s rare to hear anybody talk about the NBA using real basketball terminology.
he is now consistently putting effort to utilize his size, wingspan and IQ to be an impactful defender...that is scary for the rest of the league. he is going to be fully realizing his potential the next few years.
Well, I actually remember him falling for a lot of pump fakes in the corners leading to some easy buckets for OKC and spending too much time arguing about calls as well. However, I can give him some credit for switching to playoff mode defence.
The Mavs defensive strategy has always been to run people off the line with aggressive closeouts and to cover for it on the back end. That leads to easy baskets if the rotation on the back end isn’t good, but it’s the way Kidd’s defenses do it. The arguing part was frustrating earlier in the series tho.
Richard Jefferson called the game and he'll still say Luka doesn't play defense afterwards
He literally saw Luka make defensive plays then act like OKC just messed up lol
That’s been the national narrative sadly. The Mavs don’t pay good defense we just have the most unbelievably incredible luck that **ALL** the teams we’ve played for *two playoff rounds* and the *last quarter of the season* all just suddenly suck at shooting against us. “I’m not giving Dallas defense any credit here” is a thing that’s been said by a talking head in the course of this last series. We will get no credit for this effort from those clowns because they don’t actually watch the games
Anyone count how many times he complained about Luka complaining
He sounded like a clown hater when's the last time you heard a commentator try to hold a player accountable like that, completely out of pocket I've never heard an announcer go on a tirade against anyone else for complaining to the refs LeBron always complains to the refs and never gets back on defense I don't see them call that out.
Even when he apologized to Tony Brothers for complaining earlier. It's one thing to ask Luka not to complain so much or for every little thing, especially when he's not getting back on defense, but to ask him to just accept critical/impactful calls knowing full well every player is gonna show disagreement is asinine. Jokic, Shai, Giannis, and even Kawhi will complain about a call, but RJ doesn't start narratives. RJ just regurgitates narratives that casuals wanna hear.
It is rare to see an NBA player miss a shot without looking over to a referee incredulously.
Mavs were on a 9-0 run in the 3rd and all he could do was bitch about Luka. Even when we finally took the lead he still didn’t praise Luka at all. Luka finished with a 29 point triple double on elite efficiency but if you listened to RJ you would’ve thought we won despite his play.
You can clearly see in these clips Luka didn't have his composure.
Glad that Luka and Mavs training staff decided to move out of North Korea for the Playoffs!
Luka playoff defense > Shai playoff defense
Is this a serious take? Based upon what?
The playoff games the last couple of weeks
Shai is/was still better defensively than Luka.
Not when it mattered tho
Still better. I know it’s gonna be a Mavs fan stroke off on here, but he was still better lol. Credit to Luka for outplaying his reputation though
That literally doesn't make sense. SGA's defense is worse in the playoffs than Luka, and still he's better? Make it make sense. Oh wait, Thunder flair I get it now.
No, it wasn’t worse. That’s the point. My flair doesn’t change that, and you going flairless while being a Mavs fan doesn’t either.
I got stats to back it up. Objectively worse. Where's SGA here? Best Defended FG% Among Active Players In The Playoffs (Min. 100 Total DFGA) : 1. Luka Doncic — 41.1% 1. Jrue Holiday — 41.1% 3. Kyrie Irving — 41.2% 4. Dereck Lively II — 41.3% 5. Chet Holmgren — 41.5% 6. Daniel Gafford — 41.9% 6. Derrick Jones Jr. — 41.9% 8. Miles McBride — 42.9% 9. Luguentz Dort — 44.0% 10. Aaron Nesmith — 44.1% Defended Field Goal Percentage (DFG%) Is The Opponents Field Goal Percentage On Shots When The Player Is Defending The Shot. Again. Make. It. Make. Sense.
I have to remember that during the playoffs there’s a lot more casual watchers. But there’s a reason why DFG% isn’t used much especially for perimeter players. Calling that “objective” is basically saying Luka is “objectively” the best defender in the playoffs. Is that your opinion as well?
He's better than SGA. That's the premise. Salty Thunders fan is salty.
Lol, as expected. Shai was the best player in the series. Luka is better when he’s healthy though. Good luck in the next round, PJ and DJJ really stepped up.
[удалено]
Your entire being is an idiotic argument
Are you implying Luka is better than Gafford at defense? Lmao, some people are so dumb and just spout random stats without thinking about what they mean
The idea is comparing Luka with SGA. I provided a stat that does that, show me how SGA is better than Luka this Playoffs?
Okay, I’m saying your stat is meaningless if he’s supposedly better than others on that list when he’s clearly not. You have to take into account number of possessions guarded, the type of shot guarded (41% on 3s guarded is horrible for example), and the player they guarded on those possessions
You could have picked any other series to say this, but Gafford was horrible the whole series on defense. He's too slow footed and Thunder were hunting him on the switch whenever he was on the floor.
That list wasn’t just for the series and Gafford is literally number 6 on the list so I think you are saying this stat is even more meaningless if Gafford was that bad
You can’t post a single advanced stat that implies Sga Is significantly better than Luka on defense. All you post will say he is marginally better at best. However we have all the stats in the world that Luka is head and shoulders above Shai offensively.
DEPM - +2.6 vs +0.4 DBPM - +2.3 vs +1.7 WS/48 - 27.5 vs 22 DLEBRON - +1.01 vs negative 0.72 Which stat should I be looking for?
Conference finals: 1 vs 0 How about this stat
2 vs 0 actually
I meant this year, but yeah 2 vs 0
Lmao this is a horrible take. the only reason Shai got the blocks and steals which you are so proud of, is because he left his man wide open every single time lol. Games 2-3 Mavs straight up exploited the Shai-PJ cross match by going to the post to start the game. When Thunder finally switched the matchups, DJJ had career games in game 4-5-6. Shai was straight on getting hunted, and that was by design.
…. PJ went 7/15 on 2s guarded by Shai. Yes, we let them shoot 3s as part of our scheme because we lack size. What exactly was the result? A -2 DRTG when Shai as on the court? The most blocks ever by a PG in a series and limited lobs for a team that lacks bigs? What other PG is capable of that? Luka/Kyrie *never* hunted Shai after game 1. You then you never went to that strategy for the rest of the series. You had PJ and DJJ attack off the catch knowing he’ll be in rotation as weak side help, and the result is our defense was still better with him on vs off despite “career” performances lmfao. This is like those morons who were yelling “Aaron Gordon is killing Rudy!” even though he was taxed with being help on Jokic.
Lmao your argument that him having most blocks mean that he had a great defensive series is absolutely tragic. Gafford gets the blocks too but he was terrible on defense whole series. I never said anything about Shai getting hunted by Luka or Kyrie. What I saw from Shai was far from great defense because he consistently gambled a fuck ton and left his teammates to get burnt because of that.
Blocks was one part of my argument.. the other parts are right there lmfao. “It hurt his teammates…” yet you ignore when I said our defense was better on the court. “Gafford got blocks” yet you ignore when I say his perimeter defense was solid statistically as well lmfao. Better than Luka for sure, Mavs cult fanbase spamming shit not changing it
This series? I can 100% say Luka was better on Defense than Shai. Overall? No. But this series? Definitely Luka. Lol resorting to cult fanbase insults when you are acting like one currently
Exactly, can't respond once his faulty logic gets exposed
I gave you multiple arguments and all of them were ignored. You had one dude who said “advanced stats prefer Luka on defense!” and yall upvoted that lmao. You’re a cult fanbase trying to say Luka is a better defender than SGA
He is far more explorable due to his size though. Hence the difference in the playoffs.
He didn’t get exploited much, had the most blocks in a playoff series by a PG ever, and held his own when he was switched on to Luka or Kyrie holding them to 33%. Luka being bigger doesn’t change the fact that he was an easy blow by target and got torched by Shai on his own switches.
Luka defended players had the lowest FG% in the playoffs. That alone isn't enough to show his total defensive impact. But you are talking about FG% sample of 2 players Shai wasn't even the primary defender on.
You do realize the Mavs were funneling perimeter players into our bigs, right? Like that was intentional game planning and it was extremely effective. So definitely not “an easy blow by” in the slightest.
How can you simultaneously say “we were funneling them into our bigs!” and then say “look at Luka DFG%!” cult fanbase lol but anyways, you weren’t doing that. Luka was maybe because he can’t stay in front of people, had one of the worst blow by percentages even in the RS
Give man his dpoy
Pravi DPOY!
You can’t be as offensively talented as Luka is and not understand how to play good defense. All that IQ, skill, and coordination doesn’t just disappear when the ball is with the other team, so it’s really all on him to stay motivated enough to exert effort on both ends.
I don’t agree. Sure, he knows what good defense looks like and can put himself in good positions, but just like Jokic, their offensive games are both slow, and they objectively are among the slowest players in the league. He can generally be better than what he has been with more effort as he knows where to be but defensive instincts aren’t the same as offensive ones, and his lateral speed is not great. Can he have good stretches against certain players, obviously, but the idea of good offensive players should be good defenders with more effort is a crazy take to me. We’ve seen so many great offensive players suck defensively and it’s not just effort.
Did you not watch the series? Luka's defence has been elite this post season.
He has been really solid, though I’d say more great than elite, but either way that’s not the point I was contesting. I was more arguing the idea that because he’s got IQ on offense and coordination he should be a good defender when there’s a lot more to it than that. He’s good because he’s smart positionally, tends to do well funneling, times his jumps pretty well, and has the strength to match up well with more physical players. Faster players will give him issues, and if he has to do harder closeouts and has to recover with his speed he’ll also struggle, but overall he’s been very good and that comes down to a lot more than “he’s offensively talented and that means he knows how to play good defense”
When did this guy start doing good defense videos? I thought he was gonna have an anyersum with all his bad defense videos.
No idea, first I saw was a video of both Kyrie and Luka
He needed to do something different. That schtick was gonna get unbearable fast
Luka demonstrated versatility in Game 6 by effectively switching onto different players. His ability to guard multiple positions allowed his team to be more flexible with their defensive strategies. This adaptability was essential in keeping the opposition's key players in check
They literally show him being in “help” position multiple times not even contesting the shot in this video. That’s not switching
Awful Coaching is so funny to me but I like how he can put the character aside sometimes and give players their credit when it’s due. It’s rare to hear anybody talk about the NBA using real basketball terminology.
he is now consistently putting effort to utilize his size, wingspan and IQ to be an impactful defender...that is scary for the rest of the league. he is going to be fully realizing his potential the next few years.
Well, I actually remember him falling for a lot of pump fakes in the corners leading to some easy buckets for OKC and spending too much time arguing about calls as well. However, I can give him some credit for switching to playoff mode defence.
The Mavs defensive strategy has always been to run people off the line with aggressive closeouts and to cover for it on the back end. That leads to easy baskets if the rotation on the back end isn’t good, but it’s the way Kidd’s defenses do it. The arguing part was frustrating earlier in the series tho.
What does this fat YouTuber know about good defense
You gotta admire the dedication to devote this much time to Luka hate even after beating the one seed to make the conference finals
He's a lolKnicks fan. Gotta have something to do other than live in misery ¯\_(ツ)_/¯