GAME 4 Playoffs 2024: Oklahoma City Thunder (1-2) vs. Dallas Mavericks (2-1)

[SleepingHero]

I'm quite depressed. Gut punch loss. I agree with most of yalls points on the reasons. My own thoughts:

Luka and Kyrie were 100% the reason why they lost. Its unfortunate. Kyrie I felt played within the scheme. He's a microwave offensively and if he has it going he can take over games. But he needs to get going first. OKC is doing a good job containing him. I'm oddly okay with the fact he didn't force it and got everyone involved. We needed him in the 4th, but the looks weren't there. He had 2-3 good looks that just rimmed out. He could've forced it more and created, sure, but that's also why we have Luka. And if it comes down to it I'd rather Kyrie make the right play vs. desperate shot attempts that probably aren't going in if he's double teamed. At 6'3, the chances of him making that are slim to none if he isn't on a heater beforehand. Again, he has some of the blame don't get me wrong.

It hurts to watch Luka fail over and over. This is the first time in his career that I'm watching and I'm actively hoping he doesn't fuck something up. I've never expected him to become a low IQ player who can't make reads. I don't understand what's wrong with him. I'll concede that he has a horrible knee injury that's limiting his movements, but like Killer said, that shouldn't/doesn't affect his ability to not throw a passes into the hands of the Thunder. That alone killed the team. Then factor in his shot selection and you have another 10-12 possessions that were horrible cause Luka chose to take contested step back threes and mid range shots. I mean one 3 was nearly at the logo! Do I mind Luka taking these shots? Usually no! But he's not himself. He can barely make a floater let alone a near 35 foot 3. Taking that shot is playing right into the Thunder's game plan. Since game 3, he is 63-153 on shots. That just ain't going to cut it ever. No one will ever win anything shooting that many shots with that bad efficiency. Luka has never been that in his career ever. I think his worst 3 game stretch came when he was a rookie and he never reached these lows. But instead of adapting to his injury, he doubles down on the things he can't do. As if he's indignantly trying to prove his injured knee wrong and show he can still do these things...?

And the complaining.... just yikes. It's always been the worst part of Luka. There really is no excuse. He hasn't grown up and its definitely embarrassing him on the biggest stage. He has gone through phases of being good. But this entire playoffs he's probably been the most annoying player to watch. It's easy to overlook this when the shots are falling. Much harder when the guy is actively shooting his team out of games.

I'm sad, because a healthy Luka might have made this series a 4-0 sweep. He'd be at his regular 30/9/9/ on 48/39/80 and that'd be all the difference. Instead we have this dude that looks like Luka Doncic but is playing like an angry zombie who cannot go 2 seconds without a glare towards the ref and a 5 minute convo with them at every deadball. It makes my stomach churn.

And don't get me wrong, Luka is justified in his complaining. The physicality the Thunder get away with on him is ridiculous, while Shai and others get the friendliest whistle. I think the reffing in the 3rd quarter was abhorrent. But instead of trying to improve and fix this issue, Luka just devolves into a man child who has temper tantrums. It's sad to watch. Again like KL said he's probably the best Maverick of all time already, and it's just disappointing he still hasn't grown up in 6 years.

Brutal.