2024 NBA Playoffs: Western Conference Finals: #3 Minnesota Timberwolves vs #5 Dallas Mavericks (DAL leads 3-1)

[shi-woo]

Timing is so important in the NBA.

Luka doesn't hit that 3 or Minny doesn't blow one of those big leads, and we could have easily been 2-2 going back to Minny. That's why it's so important to take care of homecourt

[Statlanta]

On a side note, every time I watch a Mike Conley press conference I can't help to think that this guy is pure class.
I mean this is no secret, but still. I'm rooting for the Mavs but I'd be super happy for the old man to get a championship.

I was going to mention it on Sunday. Whether Kyrie drops 30 on his head or whether his team wins he is there. Definition of a true leader.

[AbeVigodaLive]

You talking about Luka?

witty. I've never heard anyone mention Luka and whining about fouls before. Hilarious.

I also hate that we are watching a Luka who is doing almost no ref complaining at all, still getting killed like it was the Clippers series where he was out of control with it.

Nobody actually cares about what is happening now, its well he's done it in the past so he's doing it now. It would be like be ignoring Towns shot great in game 4 because he shot horribly in games 1-3 lol.

Look, all respect to Luka, the Mavs organization, and their fans.

As someone who doesn’t watch Luka on the regular, if this is him hardly complaining, I can’t imagine him going full board. It’s hard to watch him jawing at the refs every time down.

Again, he’s elite and great but I don’t enjoy watching that side of his game. Same for Towns if I am honest.

There is absolutely too much NBA discussion around officiating... especially at a time when there is so much great talent in the league.

BUT...

1) Fans take cues from players. Grifting for calls and complaining about calls is part of the tv viewing experience at this point. You cannot miss it. Every few seconds.

Many, many (most) players complain about too many calls. <Insert your favorite player here>. Luka Doncic is among those who do it A LOT. Luka Doncic's reputation whining about calls is not anti-Luka hating. It's a thing. It's a very obvious thing watching the games. This is hard to argue and I don't know why anyone would claim anything different.

2) Technology is at the point where we can take any moment from any game and share it with the world. That includes missed calls and questionable calls. So as we're hit with an onslaught of "look at this bad call" take and video... it's easy to overlook the dozens and dozens of correct calls and focus on the negative. Heck, I couldn't help wondering about replays on possibly close calls to see if the official got it right... instead of just enjoying the hard-fought game going on. I hated that, but it's kind of howe we're conditioned to watch games in 2024.

3) The NBA's caste system for foul calls among players is not something that's new. It's still a legit issue. I'll let you people argue whether about who's in and who's out of the cool kids foul club.

4) Back to social media... two-sided discussions are goldmines for responses. After a game, it's hard to argue Team A is better than Team B despite losing the game. There are very clear winners/losers. But... a bad call. That's different. One fanbase can show a bad call... but the opposing fanbase can ALWAYS justify it in some sort of way. That makes for good social media fodder.

5) Very few of us can dunk over people or nail 27 footers with a 6'8" athlete leaping at us at full speed. But we might look and move better than Scott Foster or Tony Brothers or whoever. And that might give us more reasons to rip those guys when they mess up? I mean how hard can it be... if I can see the call was wrong on super slow motion replays from my couch!

6) Is NBA officiating bad... or just wildly inconsistent? Is there a difference? There is a lot of subjectivity in NBA officiating. And that leads to inconsistencies... and we could point to inconsistencies every few minutes of every game. The thing is... the NBA has had an officiating PR problem for multiple decades... but the game has overcome it anyway. Bottom line... it's still good for business.

[Mavrelous]

Luka complaining and whining is a chore to watch sometimes, along with his body language, I am surprised to hear people who watch KAT on regular basis aren't used to it already.

[Texas Chuck]

As someone who doesn’t watch Luka on the regular, if this is him hardly complaining, I can’t imagine him going full board. It’s hard to watch him jawing at the refs every time down.

Yeah perspective matters I guess. This is nothing. This is him glancing at refs, slapping his arm to show where he got hit, but not yelling at them, not talking much to them except calmly at timeouts and focusing on the game.

More typical Luka is screaming at the refs, ignoring the ongoing action, doing the whole waving off of the ref which is supposed to be an auto tech but as a star, he never gets a 2nd tech for doing.

He's definitely not engaging more with the refs than the Wolves stars and Kidd is his usual calm, stoic self, while the Wolves staff has been more much engaged with the refs.

I just hate that's becoming the talk of a series with 4 really competitive games with only one really egregious call(the reviewed out of bounds that gave the ball to Dallas that should have been a foul on Dallas) and the refs letting them play hard.

The refs have not influenced this series, yet time and again the discussion ends up there.

[Dirk]

Here's other "hard to watch things".

Edwards, screams every single time he drives to the basket. Thankfully gets drowned out by the playoff noise. Must suck to watch the guy for 82 games screaming though (and yes, my perception comes from the regular season, literally every time, he screams). He's not very good at drawing fouls, maybe he'll evolve with experience and working out with SGA.

Gobert, a total clown who throws subtle or not so subtle cheap shots and tries to provoke players.

Here's Luka complaining about a call.

Somehow the Wolves botch a 3 on 1 break, but refs don't call it. Luka complains. Hate that guy.

And yes, Luka embarrassed himself earlier in the playoffs with regards to "complaining". I can't really see why people would find that he's complaining a lot in this series. Maybe Mavs fans are just used to "much worse".

I will say one thing... if you find that the guy is hard to watch for his complaints (which is fair! it's not uncommon for opposing fans to complain about it and Mavs fans are well aware as well), then do give him some credit to verify if he doesn't have a point a few of the times he complaints about... because he's not purely a "crybaby". Often times he does get fouled.

Hell, let me ask you to check Kyrie, who rarely complains... and how often he doesn't get any good whistle. If he was like Luka, he'd be crying all the time.

The refs have been fine in this series overall. No complaints. Also... no real complaints about Wolves players!

[Movics]

What a hard foul by DJJ on Luka

[Dirk]

[bisme37]

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