Luka on loss to the Thunder: “Definitely wasn’t my best game, probably one of the worst this season… They’re the champions for a reason, so they showed that today. I think we need to be more ready and it starts with me. I need to be way better than that.. “

17 comments

  2. We need more perimeter defense and athleticism.

    The main issues are personnel related.

    Dalton, Kleber, Gabe, and Vandoā€™s presence on this team are more harmful than helpful for us.

    Vandoā€™s a negative contract due to the size and length of it though so itā€™s stupid to attach some of the limited assets we have to trade him.

    The others need to go though.

  4. Of course I am beyond grateful for Luka but last night was one of those nights I missed AD cuz he really was OKCā€™s daddy šŸ˜‚

  5. If Lakers are going to beat OKC, Luka cannot be outplayed by Shai.

    He was badly outplayed tonight while OKC having the better team.

    As many has said, I think this game is a great measuring stick on how big the gap OKC has against the rest of the league. Now they have time until Feb to close that gap as much as possible.

  7. Luka always takes accountability. The issue is that despite that he never changes the way he plays.

  8. Okc is on fire currently. He is right they are champions for a reason and they came back even stronger this year.

    If you watch their game against GSW few days ago you’d know how strong of a team they are. okc had a 37 point lead at one point. I literally saw GSW defence fall apart right infront my eyes. They are pretty much the team standing between us and WCC.

  9. JJ needs to start drilling into their head that if offense isnā€™t working we must double down on defense. Offense will come but defense is what wins championships

  11. Been a laker fan since 1999 and with our current roster we are still not contenders. We still can reach the playoffs but maybe a first round exit worst case scenario or 2nd round exit max

  13. Luka wasnā€™t good, but I donā€™t think the issues he faced were ā€œunsolvableā€. A few things:

    – He got the Chet switch in PnR a few times. This is ordinarily a win for the offense but he insisted on going to his step back 3 basically every single time in those situations. The step back should be a last resort/counter not the default look against that coverage. He needs to methodically work against Chet and get dribble penetration and heā€™s certainly capable of that.

    – They showed hard/blitzed quite often on his PnRs. Heā€™s literally the best player in basketball at killing that coverage but he struggled all night. Part of it was he was late getting the ball out to the short roll early and part of it was the short roller not being positioned correctly to make himself available without OKC being able to force a turnover. He should be able to clean this up.

    – He generally looked slower and ā€œfatterā€ this game than he has all season. Heā€™s capable of playing more explosively down hill in iso/PnR and he will as he continues to find a rhythm as the season goes on.

  15. This OKC team is playing great. They were playing with playoff intensity and cohesion last night but in mid-November. And theyā€™re gonna be good for a long time.

    We beat this team by 20 with both at full strength in April. We have a lot of basketball left in the year to figure things out and this was a good reality check.

    But OKC is not some invincible powerhouse. The Pacers were one Haliburton injury away from taking OKC to the house at the highest level. The Pacers were great in last yearā€™s run but they arenā€™t superhuman.

  16. The way he plays is so toxic when his shot is not falling. No ball movement, everyone else out of rhythm, very slow and lethargic. Just iso in slow motion.

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