(02-18-2022, 07:52 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: I don't know.
On the one hand I agree that Luka being a playmaker is always the best thing. I think the offense does look better when the ball is flying around like a hot potato.
BUT, if your superstar player is 15-26 after 3 quarters and has all around looked dominant, I'm okay with letting him force shots. While it might not be the most efficient/best play, there's something to giving the ball to the hottest most skilled hand and telling him make a basket.
Luka missed 2 wide open layups in the 4th that would've sealed it had they gone in. He really only took 2 wild shots that had no chance (the half court heave in the 2nd, and the turnaround 3pter in the beginning 4th) and 1 was when the game looked out of reach and he was about to sit down.
I do think we're being overly critical at times. Luka played last night 99% perfect. And at some point it's up to the rest of the guys (JB, Dinwiddie, Maxi, DFS) to step up and be able to carry some of the load when Luka sits even if Luka took a lot of shots that "iced" people out.
(As an aside JB had 23 points on 8-13 shooting. He didn't seem like he was ice cold despite Luka dominating the ball).
I give Luka the biggest of mulligans for that 4th quarter. He had 45 11 and 8 going into the 4th, and it was up to 47 13 and 8 when we subbed him out early in the 4th and we were up 24. The lead quickly evaporated down to 15 with him out. That's not on Luka, that's on the rest of the team. We were excited to see him being forced back into the game hoping for a truly historic night, but Luka looked gassed and out of rhythm when he came back in which really shouldn't have been surprising. As poorly as we played the rest of the way Luka had already done enough that we still managed to survive the Pelicans' valiant effort