Redick: “Luka can make all the right reads and passes out of a double; so why are you blitzing him?” ••• LeBron: “I don’t understand it.”

18 comments

1. Because when Luka is hot, it is better to give up open shots and hope teammates miss, than let him cook everyone 1v1. 

2. Lebron mentioned the GOAT Exum. W for Lebron

3. Hawks said this and look at what happened lol

4. As an European, blitzing or doubling a natural willing passer makes no sense and goes against everything that is preached here, especially if the timming of the blitz/double is obvious. It doesn’t take Luka out of his rhythm and just makes extremely talented players play 4 vs 3.

   Let them keep doing it.

5. This series is awesome for basketball nerds.

6. Its not about Luka but the team around him. For most of his career the Mavs have surrounded Luka with pretty mediocre offensive players wich makes it easier to double him even when he makes the right play 10/10 times. Even now with the best team he has ever had, the Mavs play lineups with Gafford/Lively, PJ/Maxi and DJJ wich have terrible spacing and have been shooting around or under 30% from 3 in the last 10 games or so (minus yesterday)

   So yeah, the spacing and shooting around Luka is not nearly as good as everyone thinks, its been actually pretty bad this season, wich makes doubling him a viable strategy.

7. Teams are hoping his teammates miss. That’s the thought behind it. They’d rather risk players like Maxi, Exum, THJ, etc. making wide open shots rather than letting Luka scorch them one on one. 

8. Unpopular opinion to fix defending and make scoring go lower, to maybe a team oriented offense. It’s a simple solution – FIBA rules and court size

9. It says a lot that Lebron mentions Tim as an X factor. Obviously, that extends to Exum and the other guys shooting 3s as well, but it makes sense why we keep telling Timmy to shoot with this context. If he’s hitting, there’s no answer. Teams think they have a chance with Luka and Kyrie doing their thing, but if THJ and other guys are nailing 3s, they don’t have an answer. It takes us from an already hard to beat team to a damn near impossible to beat team.

10. Shhhhh, don’t show that to other teams… If you ask Luka about blitzing, he’ll tell you he loves it because his team can then play 4v3, he even loves when they don’t allow him to get the ball since playing 4v4 is easier offensively than 5v5. 😀

11. Because the other option is he will score on iso lol.

12. It comes down to teams thinking that the rest of our team is so bad that they’d rather play 4 on 3 and take their chances. To be honest the logic was valid in the past but our team is better now so yeah don’t think it’ll work out well for opposition

13. Lebron is obviously a basketball genius but it seems like everything he does is a calculated move to convince people he’s the GOAT. I get the sense decades from now he’ll still have random PR blitzes, documentaries, hand picked journalists, etc all pushing the agenda.

14. pretty much what legler just said on all nba pod on why you want luka to set up almost every play… because he makes the right read every time

15. Games are like pick up games for Luka… so why you doubleing him, it is not allowed

16. I’d rather blitz him than let him get in his rhythm one on one. And bc Luka/harden types makes more sense to stop them from shooting their off the dribble threes. It makes less sense to trap bron in that same way bc it’s more about stopping his drive and kick then taking away a step back threes 

17. lebron LOVES luka. He’s said multiple times that luka is his favorite player in the nba

18. This video just said to me Lebron and JJ acknowledging just how tough it is going to be to beat us. We hit our shots. Make some threes and play this level of defense in the playoffs? Good luck. Every single team out there is hoping they don’t have the mavs in their bracket.