Welcome to NBA Hater report: a breakdown of some of the players, teams and trends around the league that are attracting the anger of yours. If you are not a pessimistic partner, proceed with caution.
Luka placing bricks for Lakers
Look, the Lakers have won five in a row with Luka in the alignment, 12 of 14 in general, and the defense has been out of the lists, since they have triggered in the rocket to the seed number 2 of the West, so we maintain this in the appropriate perspective. But … Have you seen Dončić’s shooting numbers since he arrived at Los Angeles?
Through eight games with the Lakers, Dončić is shooting 27% of 3 and 39% in general. Last Thursday, he made only one of his nine 3 against the Timberwolves and even that was a prayer.
Dončić was not having a great shooting season with the Mavericks and that has continued with the Lakers. However, it is clearly finding its balance. He is making some incredible passes and has combined almost perfectly with LeBron James, who is taking advantage of a lighter game load to mark what anyone would already call a quite impressive defensive season. The Lakers have won the total 254 minutes of Luka by 43 points (more than five points per game). So again, let’s keep this in perspective.
But it is something to see while the Lakers are now entering honest conversations that contain titles, and on that level, everything is analyzed. Dončić is incredible even when he is not filming hyper efficiently, and the good news is that he is working on the free throw line for eight times per night. Even so, less than 30% of 3 will not cut it in the playoffs, much less in deep rounds. Hopefully I put this on the way.
The invisible Jimmy Butler
Jimmy Butler Ratura your score, often saving your explosions for games. Since he has been with the warriors, he has openly postponed Stephen Curry. At first, Butler was increasing his aggression in the minutes without curry and at the end of the games, and even when he was not shooting, he was constantly forcing the defense to react to his cuts and units.
Recently, however, Butler has become too invisible to the type that is supposed to be the Wingman’s superstar of Curry. In his last three games, Butler has averaged eight points in eight shots, below 20 ppg in his first five with the team. The Warriors needed 56 curry points on Thursday to overcome magic because Butler only had five.
And again, it’s not just the score. It is the general aggression, or the lack of it. Through his first six exits with Golden State, Butler averaged 12.2 units per game. In the last three, that number has been cut almost at half to 7.5 per game, with its total touches of the front court in 10 from 43 to 33 per game.
That coincides with the eye test, since there have been too many possessions without Butler having any impact on them. Only his presence is worth something, without a doubt, since he is a defender occupied at least at all times. But that is not enough. If Steve Kerr needs to design some more things to take the ball to Butler in his Go areas, or Butler simply needs to increase his own initiative, Warriors need more of him if they are really going to compete in the playoffs.
The suns are shameful
Kevin Durant said the Suns “embarrassed ourselves” after a defeat by 116-98 against the Timberwolves on Sunday, but let’s be honest: the Suns, given the highest payroll in the league, have been ashamed for long. They have lost 11 of their last 14 games and there are four games of the last play.
Except for a minor miracle in these last five weeks, the Suns go to the lottery without A lottery selection. In fact, the Suns do not completely control any of their own first -round teams until 2031 (all are exchanges for the rest of the decade and there is no selection in 2031).
Durant feels like a good bet to be exchanged this summer, so the Suns should be able to replenish at least part of their future shooting closet, but that is a movement of reduction of losses itself. Phoenix resigned from Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and five first round selections (an exchange) to get it first. There is no way that they approach to bring so much value for a Durant that will soon be 37 years this summer.
Meanwhile, Devin Booker says the suns Do not talk enough While your coach, according to reports, says Booker Talk too much. This was supposed to be an honest superteam, and instead it has been called again in almost all imaginable senses.
Tatum too fast to make fun of the cavos
Jayson Tatum put a little ahead in Boston’s confrontation with the Cavaliers on Friday, when he decided to make fun of the team with the best league record with a gesture of “obtaining the FK of the finger here” at the beginning of the first quarter.
Tatum, as can be seen in the clip, felt himself because he had just built a triple corner to put the Celtics 25-3 just four minutes in the game, and one would be safe to deduce that his message was deeper than this particular game.
I was telling the cavs that the fun is over, that they have had their small regular seasonal race, but now that serious things are starting, they do not belong, not in the Boston sand, not in the Boston class, and certainly not in the conversation of first level title.
The CAVs surpassed the Celtics by 29 points from that moment and won the 123-116 game for all the number 1 seed of the East. With just over 20 remaining games for each team, the Cavaliers have an advantage of eight games on Boston in the loss column.
Of course, Boston is only worried about the postseason, where, if the seeds are maintained, he will meet with Cleveland in the conference finals. Perhaps Tatum will think twice about trying to disembark, or discard, his most threatening conference opponent.
Paul George continues to kill Sixers
With Joel Embiid officially for the season, Philadelphia 76ers officially have one thing to play during the next five weeks: a selection of the first six. Because? Because if your first round of 2025 lands outside the first six, they lose it against Oklahoma City. Upon entering the game on Tuesday, the Sixers have the seventh place of the league, which means that if Ping Pong balls bounce as they should, they would currently lose the choice.
This is a long way to say that the Sixers have no incentive to win games from now on, which made it even more fun to finish a nine games running streak by beating the Warriors on Saturday, and the half -rank cube came from Paul George with 44 seconds to play.
It simply seems so fun, or at least ironic, that when the Sixers have needed George to play well throughout the season in an effort to win games, it has been a massive disappointment in relation to the maximum contract that the Sixers gave him (which is as a potentially catastrophic decision of Daryl Morey), but now that they must lose the games suddenly to sudden They did recently.
George finished with 17 points in this game, just about his average for the season, so he was generally disappointing in general; It was Quentin Grimes with 44 points and Guerschon Yabusele him with five triples who did most of the damage. But again, George could have lost that shot and at least maintained a loss of philadelphia at stake.
Not that he suggests that he I should have I lost the shot. Players play to win even when organizations prefer to lose. It is curious that George has made the shot that the Sixers would certainly have not imported the fault when so many shots have been lost this season that would have loved them.
