Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[omahen]

So yesterday it was an interesting change of perspective for me watching Luka play my German national team - and I see and feel now what all the other fans are complaining about.

He‘s super frustrating to watch „against“ because of three things: he hits those incredible shots like his step back threes, he gets constant foul calls where he initiates and manipulates minimal contact and the refs bite on it - and he is still talking and complaining to the refs all the time. He made a money gesture in the third quarter - while already having one tech - and after the game told the refs they should feel ashamed of themselves. And that in a game where he got by far the most calls and a lot of very favorable ones.

I‘m really interested how that will play out in LA - he could become the biggest villain for all the other fans easily, kind of a super Harden.

It was a great match yesterday, I am really surprised Slovenia managed to make this a competitive match, especially since they shot 23 % from three. A couple of bad minutes at the end of third and start of fourth killed us. That three from the opposite side of the court by Germany at end of the third was a huge dagger. I don't think we lost because of refs and I don't approve the reactions, especially after the game. Officiating was bad, they called way too many fouls, a lot of them very ticky-tack fouls, which than also lead to a lot of complaining why some ticky-tack fouls are called and others not. 

However, for the context, it has to be noted that Slovenia got called for 31 fouls and Germany for 24 fouls. Slovenia shot 25 FT and Germany shot 37. Luka shot 15 FT and Franz Wagner shot 14 FT. Luka has of course a much higher usage and much more drives compared to Franz. So it is not like there is a huge discrepancy between him and other players. I agree he got awarded a couple of very generous calls, but was also a target of a very quick whistle himself. He got four fouls already at start of the third quarter and at least two of those were very borderline foul or no call.