On top of terrible man defense, Luka has remedial defensive awareness/iq

[Akhenaten]

I'd originally attributed the above play to possibly fatigue but then I went back and watched this play which was like the first or second possession of the game.



There's mistakes and then there's just poor cognition, funnily enough it's the complete opposite on offense. When they talk of "court mapping", him and Yoke represent the zenith of basketball cerebrality.

And these aren't cherry-picked, I see this FREQUENTLY from Luka (could make more gifs, just don't care to). I have another theory that the ball just magnetizes dude, one he sets eyes on a basketball all he can think about is having it in his possession.

He perceives NOTHING else going on around him lol

[Neal Romer]

At the time Luka gets back into the picture it's unclear if Reaves is gonna follow the cutting Randle or hop out to Edwards. McDaniels looks in the direction of Edwards and Luka tries to anticipate the pass. Considering the guy behind him isnt even in the picture yet I dont think it's unreasonable. It's easy to say in hindsight it was wrong because it didnt work out.

I'm not even trying to cape for Luka's defense here, I just think you may be overstating this particular sequence as an example.

[ImKobe]

Is it all on Luka there? What is Reaves doing? If Luka stays with Reid Ant gets a wide open 3, you can see him asking for the ball just before Luka gets in that passing lane. McDaniels made a great deicision you can see him thinking about passing it to Edwards for a second but has the awareness to not make a pass that would've almost certainly been deflected and probably stolen by Doncic. So if Reaves stays with Ant Luka probably sticks to the top of the key and they maybe get a stop there.

Reaves to me was their biggest issue on defense in crunch time. He also fouled McDaniels on a dunk that he had no chance of stopping, putting the Lakers down 1 with 39 seconds to go.

[Akhenaten]

At the time Luka gets back into the picture it's unclear if Reaves is gonna follow the cutting Randle or hop out to Edwards. McDaniels looks in the direction of Edwards and Luka tries to anticipate the pass. Considering the guy behind him isnt even in the picture yet I dont think it's unreasonable. It's easy to say in hindsight it was wrong because it didnt work out.

I'm not even trying to cape for Luka's defense here, I just think you may be overstating this particular sequence as an example.

Screwed up on the initial post, peep the edit, this happened at least twice in the game and if I had the inclination I'm certain I would find similarly brain dead plays.

And Reaves was reading Lebron, that's why he was indecisive the instant Lebron picks up Randle he runs out to Ant.

I dont think Luka was reading Reaves at all anyway, if you notice in both gif he's absolutely TRANSFIXED by the ball, he's literally just following the ball around like a cocker spaniel

[Akhenaten]

Is it all on Luka there? What is Reaves doing? If Luka stays with Reid Ant gets a wide open 3, you can see him asking for the ball just before Luka gets in that passing lane. McDaniels made a great deicision you can see him thinking about passing it to Edwards for a second but has the awareness to not make a pass that would've almost certainly been deflected and probably stolen by Doncic. So if Reaves stays with Ant Luka probably sticks to the top of the key and they maybe get a stop there.

Reaves to me was their biggest issue on defense in crunch time. He also fouled McDaniels on a dunk that he had no chance of stopping, putting the Lakers down 1 with 39 seconds to go.

That foul was definitely a low iq play by Reaves but on the Naz Reid three he DEFINITELY made the correct read, he played in between until it was clear Lebron picked up Randle then he was going to close out on Ant.

Luka COMPLETELY forgot about Naz Reid's existence on this play, he was BALL WATCHING, he was NOT reading Reaves.