A MOMENT OF CLARITY! – JWill on Luka Doncic’s performance after Game 3 loss to Celtics | Get Up

A MOMENT OF CLARITY! – JWill on Luka Doncic’s performance after Game 3 loss to Celtics | Get Up

ABC no CIS ABS porzingis was that the opening Dallas would need to get back in the series well Drea all day yesterday we begged Kyrie be more aggressive offensively and he was all eyes were on Kyrie Irving and Kyrie delivered 35 points he was efficient he was aggressive he started out the game H particularly early Jay will knocking him down from D yeah just and they have to get up on those High pick and rolls you can’t allow them with any kind of downhill turn cuz he can shoot it off the dribble once again 20 of those points came in the first half last night and Patrick Mahomes there and he loved it but final minute of the half Jason Tatum going to put this one up and and we got ourselves a ball game it’s a one-point game at Halftime now s minutes in the third D will how about the ball movement from Boston here yeah Boston just found themselves in the Rhythm 20 plus assist in this ball game and that’s how they are defense offensively and then this is who they are defensively Derek white give me that and stay with the play we’re going the other way and it’s Jason Tatum for the Finish Celtics up 10 at that point their largest lead of the game and then everybody just Feast your eyes come here oh that’s Jaylen Brown ready for lift off n it down that’s nasty work Jaylen Brown his athleticism just ridic yeah Jason Tatum knows it sees it that was all of us 15-point margin go to the fourth it’d be as many as 21 but Dallas hanging in there Luca finding Josh Green it’s a 10 nothing run it’s an 11-point game oh EMT Smith is there cowboys royalty is in the house 7 minutes to go Mavs down n PJ Washington Drea they’re right back in it and they needed PJ Washington to hit threes he stepped up made big shots down 21 the Maverick fought back but now here’s your ball game this is the fifth foul on Luca donic they should have that that’s not a foul I thought they should have challenged that one that’s the one they should have challenged there it’s his fifth foul and then here’s the moment that all but seals it that’s the sixth Dre is it a good call yes it’s a good call that wasn’t a charge that’s a block that is a block yes it was the right it was the right call by the way shout out to Jaylen Brown for dropping the last two times to bait the refs to make that call this one they do challenge it is not upheld excuse me the call is upheld the challenge is no good Luca’s KN was done four minutes to go Kyrie trying desperately to keep his team in it he would finish with 35 it’s a one-point game now back and forth we go how about the power Jay will from Jason Tatum and traffic I mean this is what you want from Jason Tatum you want him to be aggressive you want him to finish through traffic that’s the same downhill energy that Jaylen Brown plays with final two minutes here where are they going to find offense Derek Lively it’s a two-point game now on the other endrea is this the biggest shot of the night from Jaylen Brown yes absolutely the pump fake in the air the composure the elevation the lift he knocks it down and created separation Ms desperation time Kyrie no good we’ve got a foul we’ve got a ball game the Celtics hang on to Win It by seven they’re up three games to none LCA donic afterward on the the fouls what did you think of the whistles that went against you in the fourth quarter I mean yeah I don’t know um we couldn’t play physical so uh I don’t know I don’t want to say nothing but you know six foul in the NBA Finals where I basically I’m like this uh come on man better than that all right so the question is who needs to be better than that is it the officials or is it Luca himself Brian wior you were there to watch it you’ve seen so many of Luca’s games including many that people in this country have not seen because you follow the international competition and he’s a huge part of that Wendy what did we see last night just a tough tough situation for Luca donic to be in that spot um uh very very uh he just can’t put himself in that position with the five fouls he had had five fouls for about 20 seconds and he first possession that he has five fouls he allows himself in a position and it’s stunning that that would happen because he hadn’t been getting in front of Celtics players the entire night and that’s when he chooses to get in front of the Celtics players and he looks over to the bench and says it’s like they like it’s their fault like he says you better challenge this and what I’m thinking about you mention the international game this was essentially an elimination game for uh Luca and the the Mavericks I start thinking back to last year when I was watching him play in Manila Philippines at the World Cup in a elimination game against Canada where they’re trying to qualify for the Olympics and he gets ejected from that game because he has a meltdown of the officials and he’s screaming at the Secretary General of feba during play as he’s getting sent off the field and then I think um two two years ago at eurobasket where Slovenia is playing a vital important game against Poland and he fouls out of that game because he gets a technical foul which is a personal foul and he gets he gets knocked out of that game in a four-point game with three minutes to go and I’m wondering to myself how many times this going to happen uh how many times is he going to allow his emotions to boil over he is plus 16 when I’m sorry plus n when he’s on the court uh last night and minus 16 when he’s off when he gets fouls out with four minutes to go he knows that his team is probably in trouble and you know he’s got to be better than this and he’s been he’s had this happen repeatedly and you have to wonder how many more times is it going to happen before he corrects this because this is letting his teams down whether it’s his national team which is close to his heart or here is the Dallas Mavericks CJ you’ve been in League a long time you he’s obviously a great player no one is questioning the fact that he is about as gifted certainly on the offensive end as any player we’ve seen in the NBA maybe of all time but there are a lot of the the conventional wisdom coming out of last night is that Luca let his team down with his performance with the fouls and with the defense is it fair to say that I think it’s fair to say he let his team down and not just talking about the defense I’m talking about the fouls um it’s it’s well documented that Luca is a terrific offensive player he’s very skilled he can shoot he can pass he can dribble he’s virtually Unstoppable he averaged 35 points per game and that’s we’re facing double teams defense is designed to stop him but you have to keep yourself on the floor regardless of circumstances in an elimination game you can’t go down three at the crib he did he did that he let his team down I thought the fifth foul wasn’t a foul but when you have five you can’t foul 20 seconds later it’s got to be Olay defense you got to let him go to keep yourself on the floor but credit the Celtics they did a great job of attacking him consistent consistently throughout this series start with the foul straight because you were telling me it’s not the sixth one that is really the problem it’s not the sixth one it’s not the fifth one I I mean yeah that might be Luca calling for some answers defensively here this morning on get up listen here it’s not the there there there’s the fifth one right and so he’s frustrated about that one he wants them to challenge that call I think that’s why he was frustrated and that’s why he was like challenge it on the sixth foul because he wanted them to challenge this call this was the fifth foul it’s a bang bang play it could go either way we understand that right now the sixth foul right after the fifth foul this is also a bang bang play but LCA donic has never been known for staying in front of anyone defensively he got beat left and right all night long and then wants to try and be a hero here and make a defensive play that he simp simply doesn’t make this is a bang bang play those fouls are not the issue the fouls that are the issue are fouls number three and fouls number four so watch this he goes up for the shot he’s frustrated this foul is so far away from Boston’s basket and this is one that Luca can’t afford to get he’s completely frustrated he’s going for a steal quote unquote but he’s really not he’s just showing frustration this was in the third quarter towards the third quarter in the fourth quarter at the beginning of the quarter he does this again against pton Pritchard again for no reason just applying pressure on Payton Pritchard he’s never been known as someone to pressure the ball at half court that is a silly foul and on the third foul and the fourth foul what does he do after the foul he puts his hands up to the ref like oh yeah I know I fouled it’s not a big deal I’m frustrated yep I did it I did it and those fouls cost him if he doesn’t pick up those silly fouls he doesn’t get fouled out at the end of the game and you said it when you are the focus of a team the Celtics are constantly attacking him when they’re on offense they’re challenging him defensively you can’t afford those silly fouls those mindless fouls and those careless fouls he was so careless in that moment it almost Shrugged him off like it didn’t matter and it came back to bite him can we bring it back to something that we all learned at the earlier stage of our career like I had Coach K talk about this all the time like you you can’t win championships when you have really bad habits and you have really bad body language and then you do a ton of bitching all the time like let’s be honest about it like those are three things that we associate with Luca on on the defensive end right like offensively he is prolifically great but his habits are things that are not really good and these are the things that we’re talking about here and you’re just even seeing like these are little things where you’re like hey man get out of your own way like you need to be great and we also look luuka got blown by more times in game two of the NBA Finals than any other player in the last 10 years so you think he’s going to come out in game three and all a sudden be different when you get tired CJ what happens your bad habits come out right you have be more intentional with what you do I think this is a Moment of clarity that we’re seeing for Luca we’ve seen every great player go through it I know everybody’s going to kill Luca today I hear him defensively a ton of room of improvement but we saw MJ and Scotty talk about trust we saw LeBron James can you hit the shot down the stretch we’ve seen Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown get to NBA finals and Eastern Conference Finals and not get over the hump this is the moment where Luca this off season if they they’re going to lose Boston’s going to win their 18 Championship okay he needs to lose weight let’s be honest about it he needs to be better defensively and CJ you said it if he could be functional not good not great functional defensively and make sound decisions when his conditioning is better down the stretch for who he needs to be offensively then he can win a championship but this is his Moment of clarity life comes at you fast really fast this is a week and a half ago we were having a conversation on the show is Luca donic the best player in the world and today he is the reason that his team fell down three games to none last night despite the fact that they obviously would not have been anywhere near this position without him so what are the right things to say Wendy H how do we in a big picture way sum up Luca donic at this moment well I think he is maybe one of the best players in the world it’s not the best player in the world and that’s why it’s frustrating because he didn’t play he didn’t give a winning performance you know he can talk about the fifth and sixth fouls he probably should have gotten three or four technical fouls last night the the veteran crew that did this game stayed out of giving him technicals if this was a regular season game he might have been ejected because of the way he was acting to the officials how many times did he take himself out of these out of plays where he didn’t get back defensively because he was complaining about fish chain this is something that’s happening over and over and he’s had to apologize for it and say he’s going to do better but this is the NBA Finals the standard here is enormous and that’s that’s the thing the Celtics are a team that has been through the trials and tribulations they’ve been through the frustration and they’ve risen above it they have earned with the position that they’re in what we’re saying here is this is something that Luka is learning he needs to use this as a learning experience this can end up being a positive I can look into the future and be two years from now and see Luca holding the the the Bill Russell trophy in one hand and the Larry O’Brien trophy in the other and say you know what back in 2024 I wasn’t ready to win and I had to learn how to do it that’s what I’d like to see but my thing is I have now seen this exact script play out repeatedly where in these really important games he’s not on the floor can’t happen again got to be better defensively he doesn’t have to go to the Hall of Fame as a defensive player but he can’t allow himself to be taken out uh emotionally and physically like he is in this moment I’ll just very quickly point that that play that we keep showing you there in case you didn’t see it was one where while he’s whining and looking for a call the entire play goes back the other way and they give up an uncontested three and Doris to her credit called him out for it immed medely that’s the play that we’re showing you sometimes in basketball and Sports in general you need your boys or your peers to say what’s really happening what’s going on a dose of reality and if I were around Luca or if you’re Kyrie you’re saying to Luka Luka look stop listening to people calling you the best offensive player in the world is is there someone who can say something to him if so what and if they did would he listen I think there’s two people he’ll listen to Kyrie cuz he’s had he has a championship and I think if you look at Kyrie’s maturation this season how he’s changed the the Nar around his name look at what he did in the Western Conference Finals he was defending at a high level he was great defensively in the OKC Series he wasn’t great offensively because they kind of took him out of the game but he took steps forward and said I’m not going to worry about my offense I’m going to focus on my defense because that’s what’s going to allow us to win a championship I think he can have the conversation with Luka but I think more importantly Jay kid the Hall of Fame coach is going to have real conversations with him You’ seen his press conference after the game he talked about how Luca has to be better defensively because they’re targeting him they’re going to continue to Target him every year similar to ways in which I’ve been targeted throughout my career you have to make a decision defensively and you’re going to get scored on because it’s a maker Miss league and these guys are great Jaylen Brown’s going to score Jason Tatum’s going to score Drew holiday they’re going to score but you have to make it difficult for them to score and force them into tough twos like they did Jaylen Brown down a stretch when he pumped faked and shot but I think it’s going to come down to J kid Kyrie and more importantly himself to dig deep and fight or fold I think someone in the game last night also should have told him like Hey this isn’t working because we’re talking about his defense right and the fouls on the defensive side but even offensively we saw him continuously try to drive to the basket take a lot of dribbles lean into people’s bodies looking for a foul call how many times did he go to the basket where at times we thought he was getting fouled but the refs were simply not calling it and so instead of getting frustrated over and over that you’re not getting the foul calls that you’re looking for and instead of doing the same thing over and over something has to change and the biggest key for Luca is when he is that frustrated turning his energy to his teammates all of that energy how demonstrative he is and and how we want to just yell at the referees yell with excitement to your teammates and allow it to build you up instead of just tear everything down I felt like he was a huge distraction for the team yesterday even when the crowd was in it [Music]

On Get Up, Jay Williams, Andraya Carter, Brian Windhorst and CJ McCollum join Mike Greenberg to react to the 2024 NBA Finals Game 3 between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks and dive into Luka Doncic’s defensive troubles.

0:00 Celtics vs. Mavs Game 3 recap
4:00 Luka Doncic fouled out
7:00 Calling for answers
9:30 Jay Williams on what Luka needs to do to bounce back
12:30 Defensive woes

✔️Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV