Sunday 4/3 Game Thread

[D1SGRUNTL3D]

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This was 2 min after he tweaked an ankle

[dygaction]

Naw it’s just not a real arguement at this point-

Luka great- Giannis great- I think Giannis better but honestly Luka could have a better game any day… it’s not a fight- if you on RealGM you know I bet the mavs go to finals this year because Luka always plays best in big games- today was a big game and Luka came through.

You want it to be Luka vs Giannis for real… and I don’t think that’s fair considering Giannis has accomplished so much more than Luka and is going to get more mvp votes than Luka this year.

If you think Luka is better than Giannis this year… I want to know by what measure… and why the mvp voters not gonna see it that way?

It's simple. Doncic can't be stopped. No one has prevented Doncic from scoring the ball himself or getting his teammates open looks. He can't be stopped. It's not possible. You can't prevent both. You can either stop Doncic from getting the open looks or you can stop his teammates. You can't stop both. No 1 vs 1 defense will stop him, maybe Kawhi can, but Doncic will just call a screen and Kawhi can't fight over a screen. Maybe if he was younger. And the moment he gets a screen, it's either lob to powell, open three somewhere or Doncic finishes himself. It's unguardable play. And Doncic does it by himself.

Jokic needs other players for that. He needs guy circling around him, cutting to the basket and so on. Doncic only needs people to stand at the 3 point line. But he does need a solid screener, though he doesn't have to be really anything special. He did magic with Mike Tobey and the Olympics as well, and Toby is an average spanish league starting center.

And Doncic has never been stopped. Jokic was against the best possible defense against him, AD + Lebron + Howard. Jokic had very bad series against them. On the other hand, Doncic demolished the best possible defense against him. And Jokic lost without a fight against the Suns. Everyone excepcted the Mavs to lose 4-1 or 4-0, they almost won the series. Everyone also excepted the Suns to win what 4-1, 4-2, 4-0, well they lost 4-0.

Today Giannis had difficulty scoring at the rim. Did he pass the ball good enough out of double teams? No he didn't. He didn't create good enough opportunites for his teammates, Doncic did. It's either Doncic or his teammates, that wasn't the case for Giannis today.

And Embiid needs someone to feed him in the post, you need to have a proper PG for him, no one else needs that. And Embiid isn't on the same level as a playmaker as Joker and Doncic.

And if you bring defense into it, fine, Doncic isn't as good. But the Mavs still have very good defense with him and also Brunson on the floor. You've seen it today against the Bucks. Doncic can't be so bad at defense, if you can still have good team defense with him. And if you still keep bringing defense into it, how did this 2x DPOY help the Bucks tonight? They couldn't stop Doncic and the Mavs. Neither did the Clipps. What good is defense if you can't prevent the Mavs team from getting open looks? I'm not sure why I should be bother with how good Giannis is on defense, if he can't stop Doncic anyway, and Giannis today was stopped, mainly by DFS, Bullock and Powell... Like these are some all-nba defenders... Okay DFS is.


As for MVP, Doncic didn't have good enough stats at the start. I think a lot of people say if he had the current stats early, he would be the MVP. The same effect Doncic had on people when he played against the Clippers, I see pretty much everytime Doncic plays. Other people just don't, I don't know why. I guess if DFS misses a corner three, they're just like "ehh".... I see an open look generated by Doncic, that just happened to be missed. Perhaps they look at the points at the end of the game, at the %, at the TS% and are not impressed. All I see is, how many good looks did Doncic create. And I can't find this with any other player and no one so far has managed to stop this.

Watch Jokic play. He will wait until someone gets open. I mean he that does quite a lot of the time. Doncic doesn't wait for anyone. Doncic creates the open look, pretty much always. Jokic, on the other hand, doesn't play 1 vs 1 often enough, so he also can't create often enough and he also doesn't have gravity enough like Curry somehow. Thus Jokic isn't as good. Jokic needs someone else, Doncic doesn't.

Doncic is like Steve Nash and LBJ combined on offense, without the athleticism of LBJ, but the same strength. Put Doncic's body into Nash, you'll get the same result.

Maybe you right...but I would be willing to bet you any money amount of money that Luka won’t get more mvp votes than Giannis this year...Luka won’t get more mvp votes than Embiid, and Luka won’t come close to Jokic in mvp votes....so at best he is 4th....

Your opinions are cool but the 4th guy in the mvp race isn’t worth arguing about.

File your Luka love letters in the all nba first team section with Trae young, Booker, Curry, KD and all the other great players not named Jokic, Embiid, or Giannis- This year Luka hasn’t ascended to Mount Olympus with the MVPs...he is great but not on that level yet....

LOL you fantasy with Trae on first team at this stage. I am willing to bet money that Luka will get x10 Trae's vote on first team, and also most votes among guards.

[DowJones]

And of course the officials miss the Embiid foul.

[Wolfgang630]

Seriously Cleveland

[jbk1234]

And of course the officials miss the Embiid foul.

This is absurd.

[Tony15]

Seriously Cleveland

Garland was fouled

Sent from my SM-G960U using RealGM mobile app

[yoyoboy]

Harden would have gotten that call.

[yoyoboy]

Lmao of course Harden fouls Lauri to get open. How can people watch this and not find it despicable?

[Tony15]

Cavs getting jobbed at the end of this game....Harden grabs Laurie's jersey? Nadda

Sent from my SM-G960U using RealGM mobile app

[DowJones]

You can’t pick the end of the game as the time to swallow the whistle in a game where the other team is approaching 50 free throws.

[Wolfgang630]

Lol

[jordanwilliams6]

That was simply pathetic by Love. It’s one thing to turn the ball over, it’s another to simply walk and not care while your opponent beats you down the floor for an easy dunk.

Mind boggling.

[SkyHookFTW]

Sixers without Embiid would be lucky to be a .500 team.

[Mind_Odyssey]

42 FTs for the 76ers lol

[DowJones]

42 FTs for the 76ers lol

And they swallowed the whistle at the end when Embiid clearly fouls Garland. Cleveland would of had the lead with 15 seconds left.

[yoyoboy]

The current product just sucks. I don't even know how you can enjoy that as a Philly fan. Just an egregious all around reffing display.

[CobraCommander]

It's simple. Doncic can't be stopped. No one has prevented Doncic from scoring the ball himself or getting his teammates open looks. He can't be stopped. It's not possible. You can't prevent both. You can either stop Doncic from getting the open looks or you can stop his teammates. You can't stop both. No 1 vs 1 defense will stop him, maybe Kawhi can, but Doncic will just call a screen and Kawhi can't fight over a screen. Maybe if he was younger. And the moment he gets a screen, it's either lob to powell, open three somewhere or Doncic finishes himself. It's unguardable play. And Doncic does it by himself.

Jokic needs other players for that. He needs guy circling around him, cutting to the basket and so on. Doncic only needs people to stand at the 3 point line. But he does need a solid screener, though he doesn't have to be really anything special. He did magic with Mike Tobey and the Olympics as well, and Toby is an average spanish league starting center.

And Doncic has never been stopped. Jokic was against the best possible defense against him, AD + Lebron + Howard. Jokic had very bad series against them. On the other hand, Doncic demolished the best possible defense against him. And Jokic lost without a fight against the Suns. Everyone excepcted the Mavs to lose 4-1 or 4-0, they almost won the series. Everyone also excepted the Suns to win what 4-1, 4-2, 4-0, well they lost 4-0.

Today Giannis had difficulty scoring at the rim. Did he pass the ball good enough out of double teams? No he didn't. He didn't create good enough opportunites for his teammates, Doncic did. It's either Doncic or his teammates, that wasn't the case for Giannis today.

And Embiid needs someone to feed him in the post, you need to have a proper PG for him, no one else needs that. And Embiid isn't on the same level as a playmaker as Joker and Doncic.

And if you bring defense into it, fine, Doncic isn't as good. But the Mavs still have very good defense with him and also Brunson on the floor. You've seen it today against the Bucks. Doncic can't be so bad at defense, if you can still have good team defense with him. And if you still keep bringing defense into it, how did this 2x DPOY help the Bucks tonight? They couldn't stop Doncic and the Mavs. Neither did the Clipps. What good is defense if you can't prevent the Mavs team from getting open looks? I'm not sure why I should be bother with how good Giannis is on defense, if he can't stop Doncic anyway, and Giannis today was stopped, mainly by DFS, Bullock and Powell... Like these are some all-nba defenders... Okay DFS is.


As for MVP, Doncic didn't have good enough stats at the start. I think a lot of people say if he had the current stats early, he would be the MVP. The same effect Doncic had on people when he played against the Clippers, I see pretty much everytime Doncic plays. Other people just don't, I don't know why. I guess if DFS misses a corner three, they're just like "ehh".... I see an open look generated by Doncic, that just happened to be missed. Perhaps they look at the points at the end of the game, at the %, at the TS% and are not impressed. All I see is, how many good looks did Doncic create. And I can't find this with any other player and no one so far has managed to stop this.

Watch Jokic play. He will wait until someone gets open. I mean he that does quite a lot of the time. Doncic doesn't wait for anyone. Doncic creates the open look, pretty much always. Jokic, on the other hand, doesn't play 1 vs 1 often enough, so he also can't create often enough and he also doesn't have gravity enough like Curry somehow. Thus Jokic isn't as good. Jokic needs someone else, Doncic doesn't.

Doncic is like Steve Nash and LBJ combined on offense, without the athleticism of LBJ, but the same strength. Put Doncic's body into Nash, you'll get the same result.

Maybe you right...but I would be willing to bet you any money amount of money that Luka won’t get more mvp votes than Giannis this year...Luka won’t get more mvp votes than Embiid, and Luka won’t come close to Jokic in mvp votes....so at best he is 4th....

Your opinions are cool but the 4th guy in the mvp race isn’t worth arguing about.

File your Luka love letters in the all nba first team section with Trae young, Booker, Curry, KD and all the other great players not named Jokic, Embiid, or Giannis- This year Luka hasn’t ascended to Mount Olympus with the MVPs...he is great but not on that level yet....

LOL you fantasy with Trae on first team at this stage. I am willing to bet money that Luka will get x10 Trae's vote on first team, and also most votes among guards.

You might win that bet lol...funny part is acknowledge the insanity of fandom...I can use the stats that say tray better and yell screw the voters...but then use the votes to prove Giannis is better...it’s like I’m skip bayless... either way...you know I got Luka in the finals this year and I still don’t think he better than Giannis - but my dream is to see Luka and Giannis fight it out in the finals -

I just hope they don’t team up on the Lakers with Jokic and Zion

[jbk1234]

You can’t pick the end of the game as the time to swallow the whistle in a game where the other team is approaching 50 free throws.

This is an endless source of frustration. The competition committee decides that moving screens, foul baiting, the offensive player initiating contact is a problem, they change the rules, and by the end of the season the point of emphasis is gone. Poof, just like smoke.

[Arsenal]

Statement win for PHI to overcome CLE on the road with a clutch performance down the stretch of a road B2B. Now tied in the loss column w/both BOS and MIL and only 2 back of MIA, which is losing atm. Embiid with 44/17/5/3 in an MVP caliber performance and Harden w/a Triple Double!

[The High Cyde]

This is why Philly is gonna have a bad time in the playoffs, they’re too reliant on refs and don’t have a fallback plan.