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I have never seen someone put such an empty stat line as Luka did this game. And im telling you this as someone who likes Luka. Dude was horrible. Traffic cone on D, ballwatcher without the ball, chucker with the ball. Passed hot potatoes to his teammates in the last moment when he wasted the shot clock. Played without any energy or gameplan...

Dude looked like he was 40 and retired, playing a charity game... When did he get so fat again???

hagredionis wrote:If going 33/13/6 and +3 plus/minus is considered a horrible game then it means he's the GOAT and people have incredible expectations.

Which one of those numbers measures defense and efficiency?

Alatan wrote:

Yuri36 wrote:

Michael Jackson wrote:Zubac is not repeating this performance.

+1

Zubac improved tremendously. He might actually be the Clippers 3rd best player.

Still never in hell to the level he showed tonight consistently.
Who there before the game seriously expected him to humiliate posibly the best duo of centers in the league in the last 4 months along with Gobert and KAT ?

Alatan wrote:I have never seen someone put such an empty stat line as Luka did this game. And im telling you this as someone who likes Luka. Dude was horrible. Traffic cone on D, ballwatcher without the ball, chucker with the ball. Passed hot potatoes to his teammates in the last moment when he wasted the shot clock. Played without any energy or gameplan...

Dude looked like he was 40 and retired, playing a charity game... When did he get so fat again???

I feel the same.
The worst is that even in the second half, Mavs still had a chance to come back when Kyrie got hot....but unfortunately, Luka couldn't follow him or rather he did but way too late when the game was already over.

NyKnicks1714 wrote:

G R E Y wrote:

NyKnicks1714 wrote:
I didn't catch what he said exactly, but in a vacuum it does make some sense as it pertains to the next game. Not in this series though since Lue is great at making adjustments.

A team makes adjustments regardless in the POs. It's all about that given you face the same team. There's no advantage to losing lol

There's of course no advantage to losing a game when it comes to the series, but I'm saying that strictly for the very next game, the losing team will often have the adjustment advantage. It's similar to how players tend to have a higher percentage on threes following a missed three than they do on threes following a made three. You're just going to put for more effort in correcting mistakes when those mistakes cost you. It's a natural human tendency.

Again though, I wouldn't apply that thinking to Game 2 in this series because of the respective coaches.

Plus what adjustment you make has to include something they haven’t even seen - Kawhi

Luka is definitely chubby again. It’s odd because Jokic is now going on like 2-3 years in a row of staying lean. Luka is barely 25. Why is he having trouble staying in shape?

OkcSinceSGA wrote:Luka is definitely chubby again. It’s odd because Jokic is now going on like 2-3 years in a row of staying lean. Luka is barely 25. Why is he having trouble staying in shape?

I've been seeing it in the regular season although it was the opposite of today. He goes off in the first half just toys with his opponents, but then in the second half he's worn out and Kyrie has to close. He probably just doesn't love the gym and loves to eat what he wants. It's the one thing that could keep him for being amongst the greatest of all time.

ChipotleWest wrote:

Alatan wrote:

Yuri36 wrote:
+1

Zubac improved tremendously. He might actually be the Clippers 3rd best player.

He averaged 11 on the season, he scored 20 today.

Harden was 12 over his average, Zubac 9 over his average, Mann 5 over his average, Westbrook 2 over his average. Add those together that's 28 extra points probably makes up for not having Kawhi. I do not believe they can do that at least 4 times. They'll still need Kawhi to win the series.

Well many of those guys will be over their averages due to increased minutes and a different shot distribution without Kawhi, so I wouldn't simply look at point averages. Now, using the possessions he would regularly use very efficiently (as or close to as efficiently as he would), that's what we can't expect to happen consistently.

You don't take out 17 FGA/G + 4.2 FTA/G and expect it to go nowhere, it doesn't become 17-19 turnovers lol. So even if the guys just got 1 point per possession from the possessions (not good at all) Kawhi was using, you would still have another 18 points spread out among those guys.

Zubac is not a shot creator, he could have another game like this, but it would be based on if the Clippers can keep him on the court long enough and how Dallas defends/what they are willing to give up on defense.

KIDD




LUE

Yuri36 wrote:

Michael Jackson wrote:Zubac is not repeating this performance.

+1

He may not reach both totals in another game all year, but he is good within his specific skill set and in certain matchups. This is not like some reserve guard randomly shooting 6-9 on 3’s and having a career night.

ChipotleWest wrote:

Alatan wrote:

Yuri36 wrote:
+1

Zubac improved tremendously. He might actually be the Clippers 3rd best player.

He averaged 11 on the season, he scored 20 today.

Harden was 12 over his average, Zubac 9 over his average, Mann 5 over his average, Westbrook 2 over his average. Add those together that's 28 extra points probably makes up for not having Kawhi. I do not believe they can do that at least 4 times. They'll still need Kawhi to win the series.

Shock me, removing a guy who shoots 17 times a game increased the scoring of others.

Zubac also averaged 12 in 20 mins vs Dallas this season. He played 33 mins today for his 20 which is pretty much identical points per minute.

Mann averaged 12 in 29 mins vs Dallas this season. He scored 13 in 39 mins today.

Luka better win this series.

That was terrible.

Luka's defense...oof.

OkcSinceSGA wrote:Luka is definitely chubby again. It’s odd because Jokic is now going on like 2-3 years in a row of staying lean. Luka is barely 25. Why is he having trouble staying in shape?

He's lazy and stupid. How is this even a question?

ChipotleWest wrote:

Alatan wrote:

Yuri36 wrote:
+1

Zubac improved tremendously. He might actually be the Clippers 3rd best player.

He averaged 11 on the season, he scored 20 today.

Harden was 12 over his average, Zubac 9 over his average, Mann 5 over his average, Westbrook 2 over his average. Add those together that's 28 extra points probably makes up for not having Kawhi. I do not believe they can do that at least 4 times. They'll still need Kawhi to win the series.

As stated already with more minutes + Kawhi 's shots available should mean more than reg season averages.

Also PG isn't going 8-20 again. Norm isn't going to only put up 5 on 2-6 again

no way to predict this given kawhis status being up in the air. assuming he stays out, they'll will be hard pressed to beat luka and kyrie

ChipotleWest wrote:

OkcSinceSGA wrote:Luka is definitely chubby again. It’s odd because Jokic is now going on like 2-3 years in a row of staying lean. Luka is barely 25. Why is he having trouble staying in shape?

I've been seeing it in the regular season although it was the opposite of today. He goes off in the first half just toys with his opponents, but then in the second half he's worn out and Kyrie has to close. He probably just doesn't love the gym and loves to eat what he wants. It's the one thing that could keep him for being amongst the greatest of all time.

Another thing is his poor defense.

Anyone arguing Luka had a good or decent game clearly wasn't watching. Bad efficiency, mannequin defense, ball hogging, and tantrums about his own teammates. I would truly hate to play alongside this guy.

Kawhi should rest up until the second round matchup if Mavs continue like this

Ty Lue ran circles around Kidd, but that was expected, the value of star power is tough shot making and that wasn't available yesterday from Luka and Kyrie in the 1st half, while Harden and Westbrook feasted off the attention PG received, Zubac dominated Gafford.
It was a battle between a team well prepared with committed vets vs unprepared and lacking in effort team with 2 stars who looked shell shocked in the 1st half, hats off to the Clippers they kicked ass.
Hopefully lessons are learned.