I respect that. And as a mavs fan I don’t dislike Booker. If Booker played for the mavs I would love rooting for him. I think he is a great player and is a passionate guy as is chris paul. I think we are long past the days of ref manipulation. I’m not going to try to defend doncic there. IMO the game is not as physical as it used to be and a player like doncic uses his physicality and pace to his advantage. As a defense, if you don’t body him and give him space, he will do whatever he wants with the skill that he has to both score and pass. Every since the clippers started to defend luka that way in the playoffs a couple of years back, most teams defend Luka in a very physical manner which in my opinion puts the referees in a difficult position. Of corse Luka rarely lets it go unnoticed and that doesn’t help the refs either.
I'm sorry. This is just not accurate. Luka Dončić is not guarded any more physically than any other player who is a good scorer. He is the one initiating the contact, and it's not even like he's attempting to disguise it. He Rams in the people and then fully extend his arm to shove them a way to create space and even more agree just leave he just dropped his shoulder and keeps ramming through defenders sat there in good position until either he is wide-open to shoot or he's done it all the way to the basket for a layup. Even worse at least some of the time the officials reward him with defensive fouls. I don't think anyone here is complaining about questionable ones.
I could at least understand the referee not making the call on that last one that ended up with the scuffle. If that was poker I would have been saying that we got away with one, but at least I understood not making that call. We are complaining about the blatant offensive fouls he and woods were committing repeatedly. He's the small forward version of Shaquille O'Neal, but at least I felt like shaq was also frequently fouled without getting whistles.
Don't get me wrong. This is kind of like Chris Paul. That guy used to drive me crazy with his shenanigans, but I was happy as hell when we traded for him. Every time I see Luka Dončić I I am sad that we passed on him for DA… easily the most frustrating Phoenix Suns player I've ever watched.
And to be clear Luka Dončić isn't the only player to do this. I thought Booker got away with something similar right under the basket I think it was in the third quarter. The difference is that that was on a fast break and part of the action of the basket not a postop where it's just so obvious.
One more thing. Just about every player carries the ball. Dončić takes it to a whole other level. The guy is an incredibly gifted player. He doesn't need and he certainly doesn't deserve the help from the officials… Not with the way he ******* at them incessantly.
And that's all I have to say about that.
