Lakers made two mistakes in defending Luka Doncic to close regulation, Durbin Hamm admits one

Lakers made two mistakes in defending Luka Doncic to close regulation, Durbin Hamm admits one

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With 11.8 seconds to play in regulation Thursday, the Lakers had a 3-point lead over the Mavericks, who had possession by sideout. Durbin Ham had a decision to make. How would he tell his team to defend Luka Doncic? Would he choose to defend at all, or would he choose to foul immediately? I had a perfect timeout to consider my options.

The Lakers attacked Doncic for much of the second half. That put Kibosh on his scoring. He had not scored 17 drought minutes after his 5:22 mark in the third quarter. Of course, that strategy has toxic friction. Committing a double team to Doncic leaves the shooter open.

With the three-point lead, Hamm decided he didn’t want to give one of Dallas’ many capable three-point shooters an open look and chose to keep Luca straight. That was his first mistake. Ham later conceded as well.

“Kicking ass,” said Hamm. “In that case, you need to coach a little better. You should have blitzed. [Luka]Or at least pushed him inside the 3-point line.”

Ham is right on both counts, and it’s no hindsight to say that. The stats show Doncic is good He has 3 points He’s not a shooter, but he can throw those numbers away when a match looms. This man is made of ice. He has done too many times. In that situation, you can’t make the game-tying 3 look pretty to him. This is what he’s guaranteed to get if he’s defended one-on-one, as is traditionally the case.

I say Traditional Hamm is correct in other respects as well, so I’ll defend him. If he defends Luka one-on-one, then why is Dennis Schroeder playing the normal defense, i.e., between Luka and the basket?In a situation like this, why would a team literally have a shooter like Doncic? I don’t understand why they don’t support it.

See, he’s inbounding the ball. He is practically guaranteed to come pick it up soon. If you’re Schroeder, or Russell Westbrook, slack away from Doncic on the inbounds, and Russell Westbrook, who allowed a free run on the dribbling handoff, jump high before it happens . Luka sticking from behind.

The key is to not let Luca roll the red carpet and corner the shooter. Who cares if he scores in paint? Two points doesn’t hurt you. Do you know what is hurting you? this …

It tied the game, and it was also a predictable result. The moment the ball left Luca’s hand, it would be hard to find anyone who didn’t think it went in. Double Luca to no one knowsI would still take a chance with someone other than Doncic, but better yet, I won’t give up Anyone Chance for that shot.

The most ridiculous part of NBA basketball in my book is that you can intentionally commit a foul when you’re three points up to thwart a chance. of the game-tying shots. Still, as they say, those are the rules. Schroeder had plenty of time to foul Doncic before he went into shooting motion. He clearly didn’t tell his team to roll this out, but Hamm’s other mistake was that it was statistically just a manipulation. he didn’t approve of it.

“We didn’t mean to foul,” Hamm said. “I had confidence in the five players I was defending.

Different coaches feel differently about these situations. Some believe that going 3 up is fouling. Others do not. I don’t get a group that doesn’t foul. The game ends in a draw with 3 points. Not two. I know that Luca deliberately missed a free throw a while ago to put back and send the game into overtime, but it’s much less likely than hitting a regular step-back 3.

To be fair, we had quite a bit of time left. Let’s say the Lakers fouled him in 8s or he fouled in 9s. And let’s say Luca does both (this is not guaranteed, he just missed his shot with his two flagrant fouls early in the quarter). Here the Mavs foul and the Lakers have to make his two free throws themselves so he gets back the 3 or give the Lakers a chance to tie without returning the 3. .

Was Hamm really confident in the players he was defending, or was he less confident in the Lakers’ ability to make two free throws? If it’s less than 10 seconds, it’s a foul, and it’s a 3-point difference. Especially when Luka Doncic is in another team.

But the Lakers didn’t foul. It also didn’t double. They gave Doncic a clean look at the most comfortable shots of his vast arsenal. To drive the point home perfectly, Luca went ahead and tied another game with less than a minute to play in the first overtime.

what’s the saying? You ruin the bull, do you get horns? Well, Luke is a bull. The Lakers chose to screw him up and they got what they came for.



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