Not saying he’s Jordan Poole levels of unplayable but he’s still a very clear negative on defense that you need to build your team around accordingly
[11th percentile in defensive EPM(for comparison Embiid is 94th percentile, Tatum 85th, Jokic 54th, Steph 43rd, Haliburton who’s also obviously horrible on D 5th percentile)](https://dunksandthrees.com/epm)
Otherwise-Tale9671
MITWestbrook about to drop a seminar…
Charliebitme1234
Luka aint it on defense. lucky he scores 40 points not even trying
Thisisgoingtopainz
Lmao Luca exposed. Guess they don’t have a Westbrook in he euroleague
Acrobatic-Dog7044
Getting hunted for the mismatch by Westbrook in 2023 is crazy lol bad defense Luka you’re like 5 inches taller than him probably.
fred_crumbs
Hell yeah, brother.
gearboxnine
Rock the fat baby
StefonDiggsHS
had 2 points before this just wanna say. downvote it idgaf
MITWestbrook
You’re welcome
Legitimate_Secret_79
They can’t hide Luka on D anymore because now they also have Kyrie on the court. Yet I keep hearing it was a great trade 😂
AstroRocket713
Luka officially on fraud watch 🧐
rogozh1n
Lively was out. No long arms at the rim for the Mavs, and Luca has to clean up his own mess (or not…).
tagprobablylag
Rinse and repeat
jellyfamjohn
Bro wtf is Luka doing backing up that much
broadwayallday
mans pasted that last hate thread into chatGPT and had it read it back in shakesperean prose for the walk in
techno-wizardry
The defensive effort is really what kills me. He seems disinterested in playing defense. Sloppy fouls, slow feet, acting hurt after getting scored on and not running down court with his teammates. Luka is amazing but like playing at 80% his potential because of some mental blocks and defeatist tendencies.
spongebobisha
I will never not root for Russ.
hojibryantfromthelak
Not trying to hate but I’m so glad I don’t have to watch this type of play style anymore
xBootstrap
This happens when you don’t have a proper Center. Lively out, it’s a free lane with Dwight Powell meeting you on the rim. Doesn’t help when he volleyball taps every rebound to the opposing team.
night_dick
Man. Luka really is white harden. Shout out Jeff Teague for the spot on analysis
thegoat1337
Luka got that Harden-esque defense.
eanregguht
It’s hilarious that people still think he’ll improve massively like he isn’t already near his peak. Eventually he’ll be 30 and y’all will still be talking about dude like he’s 19.
TorePun
dallas is so unlikeable
CleanAd3089
He still has conditioning issues despite being less fat this season. I think he had been playing the whole second half, like 19 minutes straight, and he was gassed. His effort remains a problem though, still gets caught ball watching and beat on cuts and movement.
AntiChangeling
Man, I haven’t seen him get attacked like that since CP3’s relentless targeting of him in Game 2 in ’21-’22, which was absolutely brutal to watch and one of the reasons Luka worked to get better on defense in the past couple of years.
Maybe this game’ll light a fire under him defensively again? It’s happened before, after all.
SG-2000
He knows he’s supposed to play off him to concede a jump shot.
But he apparently had no idea how to use that to actually stop a drive, on these possessions.
Ricardo2991
The Mavs don’t have a rim protector
___213___
Those could have been turnovers and bricks too.
Never trust that dude with the ball in crunchtime
SandyMandy17
This is why I think SGA is better than Luka and Steph rn
Defense is half of basketball
Xc0liber
I don’t get why players don’t do this more often.
Just like that Luka had 2 more fouls. If they do it early in the game, he would have to sit down.
Dreo27
I see Russ. I upvote.
NoChanceNoProblem
I dont get why russ likes shooting middies so much, when he still can be an all-star calibur driver to the hoop. I know he sucks at FT but fuck man keep attacking.
ThoughtsofLee-S
We take the L and we stay patient…Oh and I can’t wait for the next face off against the clippers its gon be wild.
dublecheekedup
r/nba 9/11
Fladap28
Don’t rock the chunky baby!!
realfakejames
Mavs are such frauds
Bababooey98
Tired Luka is the worst defender in the league and its not close.
Ok-Tree4365
*Russ attacks Luka (and scores) for 4 straight posessions.
Russ was treating Luka like Luka treats Zubac.
segson9
Luka just didn’t look right tonight. But the same can be said about hte whole team. They played with zero energy and looked like they didn’t care. I know people will focus on Luka, because he’s a star, but you could have made similar highlights about every other player.
The only reason that Clippers weren’t up by 30+ the whole time was, that they didn’t really play that well.
JJiggy13
This is something that I feel like we should be seeing more of throughout NBA seasons. If someone is hot, attack them and force them to play defense.
Sioux_preme
Gotta love Luka’s response:
Do nothing.
Do nothing.
Fake some kind of weird injury.
And do nothing.
hebelehoo
Tbh except the last possession Doncic did his best, of course everyone joking about it but this is more of Westbrook being good at going to the rim rather than Doncic being bad on defense. Of course we cannot appreciate a player without slandering another one.
42 Comments
“Luka isn’t a bad defender” – Mavs fans at the start of every new season
[Relevant post](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/zn60v4/hes_actually_not_as_bad_on_defense_this_year/)
Not saying he’s Jordan Poole levels of unplayable but he’s still a very clear negative on defense that you need to build your team around accordingly
[11th percentile in defensive EPM(for comparison Embiid is 94th percentile, Tatum 85th, Jokic 54th, Steph 43rd, Haliburton who’s also obviously horrible on D 5th percentile)](https://dunksandthrees.com/epm)
MITWestbrook about to drop a seminar…
Luka aint it on defense. lucky he scores 40 points not even trying
Lmao Luca exposed. Guess they don’t have a Westbrook in he euroleague
Getting hunted for the mismatch by Westbrook in 2023 is crazy lol bad defense Luka you’re like 5 inches taller than him probably.
Hell yeah, brother.
Rock the fat baby
had 2 points before this just wanna say. downvote it idgaf
You’re welcome
They can’t hide Luka on D anymore because now they also have Kyrie on the court. Yet I keep hearing it was a great trade 😂
Luka officially on fraud watch 🧐
Lively was out. No long arms at the rim for the Mavs, and Luca has to clean up his own mess (or not…).
Rinse and repeat
Bro wtf is Luka doing backing up that much
mans pasted that last hate thread into chatGPT and had it read it back in shakesperean prose for the walk in
The defensive effort is really what kills me. He seems disinterested in playing defense. Sloppy fouls, slow feet, acting hurt after getting scored on and not running down court with his teammates. Luka is amazing but like playing at 80% his potential because of some mental blocks and defeatist tendencies.
I will never not root for Russ.
Not trying to hate but I’m so glad I don’t have to watch this type of play style anymore
This happens when you don’t have a proper Center. Lively out, it’s a free lane with Dwight Powell meeting you on the rim. Doesn’t help when he volleyball taps every rebound to the opposing team.
Man. Luka really is white harden. Shout out Jeff Teague for the spot on analysis
Luka got that Harden-esque defense.
It’s hilarious that people still think he’ll improve massively like he isn’t already near his peak. Eventually he’ll be 30 and y’all will still be talking about dude like he’s 19.
dallas is so unlikeable
He still has conditioning issues despite being less fat this season. I think he had been playing the whole second half, like 19 minutes straight, and he was gassed. His effort remains a problem though, still gets caught ball watching and beat on cuts and movement.
Man, I haven’t seen him get attacked like that since CP3’s relentless targeting of him in Game 2 in ’21-’22, which was absolutely brutal to watch and one of the reasons Luka worked to get better on defense in the past couple of years.
Maybe this game’ll light a fire under him defensively again? It’s happened before, after all.
He knows he’s supposed to play off him to concede a jump shot.
But he apparently had no idea how to use that to actually stop a drive, on these possessions.
The Mavs don’t have a rim protector
Those could have been turnovers and bricks too.
Never trust that dude with the ball in crunchtime
This is why I think SGA is better than Luka and Steph rn
Defense is half of basketball
I don’t get why players don’t do this more often.
Just like that Luka had 2 more fouls. If they do it early in the game, he would have to sit down.
I see Russ. I upvote.
I dont get why russ likes shooting middies so much, when he still can be an all-star calibur driver to the hoop. I know he sucks at FT but fuck man keep attacking.
We take the L and we stay patient…Oh and I can’t wait for the next face off against the clippers its gon be wild.
r/nba 9/11
Don’t rock the chunky baby!!
Mavs are such frauds
Tired Luka is the worst defender in the league and its not close.
*Russ attacks Luka (and scores) for 4 straight posessions.
Russ was treating Luka like Luka treats Zubac.
Luka just didn’t look right tonight. But the same can be said about hte whole team. They played with zero energy and looked like they didn’t care. I know people will focus on Luka, because he’s a star, but you could have made similar highlights about every other player.
The only reason that Clippers weren’t up by 30+ the whole time was, that they didn’t really play that well.
This is something that I feel like we should be seeing more of throughout NBA seasons. If someone is hot, attack them and force them to play defense.
Gotta love Luka’s response:
Do nothing.
Do nothing.
Fake some kind of weird injury.
And do nothing.
Tbh except the last possession Doncic did his best, of course everyone joking about it but this is more of Westbrook being good at going to the rim rather than Doncic being bad on defense. Of course we cannot appreciate a player without slandering another one.