NBA Season 2025-26

[SparzWizard]

Luka with 60 points in Miami tonight, heh.

Seriously, no team has the recipe to stop Luka other than the Celtics?

[Who]

Not impressed with the Knicks.

I have Cleveland and Detroit ahead of them in the East. And of course, Boston.

Orlando have been disappointing this season but Banchero has been balling since the All-Star break. They are a team to keep an eye on. They might surpass the Knicks as well.

[Moranis]

Luka with 60 points in Miami tonight, heh.

Seriously, no team has the recipe to stop Luka other than the Celtics?

The Celtics don't exactly stop Luka either.  I mean in the Finals he averaged basically 29/9/5.5.  he led the finals in total points, rebounds, and steals (also turnovers). 

[ChillyWilly]

Luka with 60 points in Miami tonight, heh.

Seriously, no team has the recipe to stop Luka other than the Celtics?

The Celtics don't exactly stop Luka either.  I mean in the Finals he averaged basically 29/9/5.5.  he led the finals in total points, rebounds, and steals (also turnovers).

It's not about stopping Luka, it's much more about abusing him on the other end. Come playoffs they won't be able to hide him. Let's remember how gassed he looked in our series.

[RMO]

Maybe I'm just getting too old to get too worked up about it anymore but this recent laker resurgence isn't really affecting me (other than I just always want them to lose).  They might make some noise early in the playoffs but a championship run or even a deep run seems highly unlikely.  It's been cute and ESPN has been pent up for years on laker success but I think there are flaws that will get exposed in the playoffs against better teams.  For now I'm just treating it as a hot run during the season's dog days.

[Celtics2021]

Maybe I'm just getting too old to get too worked up about it anymore but this recent laker resurgence isn't really affecting me (other than I just always want them to lose).  They might make some noise early in the playoffs but a championship run or even a deep run seems highly unlikely.  It's been cute and ESPN has been pent up for years on laker success but I think there are flaws that will get exposed in the playoffs against better teams.  For now I'm just treating it as a hot run during the season's dog days.

Agreed.  This team was never getting past the second round.  For a while it looked they were a likely out in the first, and it is 50/50 or 60/40 depending on who the draw, but the overall story has not changed.  In fact, I am enjoying this hype, because when they do go out early it will make the inevitable crash even louder.

[Donoghus]

Maybe I'm just getting too old to get too worked up about it anymore but this recent laker resurgence isn't really affecting me (other than I just always want them to lose).  They might make some noise early in the playoffs but a championship run or even a deep run seems highly unlikely.  It's been cute and ESPN has been pent up for years on laker success but I think there are flaws that will get exposed in the playoffs against better teams.  For now I'm just treating it as a hot run during the season's dog days.

Agreed.  This team was never getting past the second round.  For a while it looked they were a likely out in the first, and it is 50/50 or 60/40 depending on who the draw, but the overall story has not changed.  In fact, I am enjoying this hype, because when they do go out early it will make the inevitable crash even louder.

Yeah, they're not sniffing the conference finals.  ESPN will pump them up, their fanboys will chirp then they'll bow out unceremoniusly like 4-1 in the conference semis.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Luka with 60 points in Miami tonight, heh.

Seriously, no team has the recipe to stop Luka other than the Celtics?

The Celtics don't exactly stop Luka either.  I mean in the Finals he averaged basically 29/9/5.5.  he led the finals in total points, rebounds, and steals (also turnovers).

They stopped the Luka heliocentric offense. Dallas only put up more than 100 2 out of 5 games. His offensive rating in those games was 97, 106, 97, 116, and 86, for an average of 100. His defensive rating was 105.

And if you take out Dallas' one win, his offensive rating was 97 and his defensive rating was 110.

Luka got his counting stats, but the Cs shut the Luka heliocentric offense down.

[Vermont Green]

I don't know, I think LAL has a really good roster on paper and I was surprised that they weren't doing better earlier in the season.  Luka carried a much less talented DAL team to the finals in 2023-24.  And Lebron is still plenty good if they can nurse him along so he is healthy for the playoffs.  Smart, Reaves, and Ayton are good enough complementary players.

Interesting how they stack up vs. the current BOS starters (order Tatum and Brown however you want)

Tatum        Doncic
Brown        LeBron
White         Smart
Scheierm    Reaves
Queta         Ayton

[slamtheking]

I don't know, I think LAL has a really good roster on paper and I was surprised that they weren't doing better earlier in the season.  Luka carried a much less talented DAL team to the finals in 2023-24.  And Lebron is still plenty good if they can nurse him along so he is healthy for the playoffs.  Smart, Reaves, and Ayton are good enough complementary players.

Interesting how they stack up vs. the current BOS starters (order Tatum and Brown however you want)

Tatum        Doncic
Brown        LeBron
White         Smart
Scheierm    Reaves
Queta         Ayton

If you look at this as top talent to least talented in the starting line-up for each team, I'd go
Brown        Doncic
Tatum        LeBron
White         Reaves
Queta         Smart
Scheierman Ayton
Each of the top 4 matchups go in the Celtics' favor. 
Someone could try to argue Luka over Brown but JB plays great defense and cannot be picked on at that end of the floor.  Luka, despite supposed improvements this year, is still a defensive sieve. 
Baylor/Ayton could be in the C's favor as well since he's found his shooting stroke the past couple of months and his rebounding numbers have been excellent for his position.  Switch out Hauser for Baylor it's still an argument over whether he's better than Ayton -- Sam's D has been vastly underrated this year but he doesn't vary his offense as much as Baylor or rebound as much although he's still pretty productive on the defensive boards.

[Moranis]

Luka with 60 points in Miami tonight, heh.

Seriously, no team has the recipe to stop Luka other than the Celtics?

The Celtics don't exactly stop Luka either.  I mean in the Finals he averaged basically 29/9/5.5.  he led the finals in total points, rebounds, and steals (also turnovers).

It's not about stopping Luka, it's much more about abusing him on the other end. Come playoffs they won't be able to hide him. Let's remember how gassed he looked in our series.

And yet he was the best player on the floor.  He was a more efficient shooter from the field than either Tatum or Brown.  He had the highest GmSc in the Finals.  The Mavs problem in that series was not Luka, it was everyone else.  Irving wasnt good and they had no one else do anything. 

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Luka with 60 points in Miami tonight, heh.

Seriously, no team has the recipe to stop Luka other than the Celtics?

The Celtics don't exactly stop Luka either.  I mean in the Finals he averaged basically 29/9/5.5.  he led the finals in total points, rebounds, and steals (also turnovers).

It's not about stopping Luka, it's much more about abusing him on the other end. Come playoffs they won't be able to hide him. Let's remember how gassed he looked in our series.

And yet he was the best player on the floor.  He was a more efficient shooter from the field than either Tatum or Brown.  He had the highest GmSc in the Finals.  The Mavs problem in that series was not Luka, it was everyone else.  Irving wasnt good and they had no one else do anything.

You are just flat out wrong on this. I'm not saying the Mavs team was really good, but nearly every basketball mind saw that Luka's heliocentric offense was not particularly good and his defense was abysmal in that finals.

In his playoff run that year, Luka was much better. There's been moments for the Lakers when Luka has been dominant. I'm not saying Luka is not a great player.

But its revisionist history to try to say that Luka wasn't the problem that series, and that it was all his teammates. Not a basketball mind who watched those finals thought that.

[Phantom255x]

Luka with 60 points in Miami tonight, heh.

Seriously, no team has the recipe to stop Luka other than the Celtics?

The Celtics don't exactly stop Luka either.  I mean in the Finals he averaged basically 29/9/5.5.  he led the finals in total points, rebounds, and steals (also turnovers).

It's not about stopping Luka, it's much more about abusing him on the other end. Come playoffs they won't be able to hide him. Let's remember how gassed he looked in our series.

And yet he was the best player on the floor.  He was a more efficient shooter from the field than either Tatum or Brown.  He had the highest GmSc in the Finals.  The Mavs problem in that series was not Luka, it was everyone else.  Irving wasnt good and they had no one else do anything.

Idk, maybe you're right about the stats but I saw Luka getting absolutely abused on defense. Sure, I guess in today's hot take media culture it doesn't matter but I do value defense and think it matters. It's why some others like James Harden haven't gotten through either despite putting up stellar numbers and also having made a Finals in the past. Maybe statistically he was the best player on the floor but I think most people came out of that series actually thinking worse of Luka as a whole when factoring in defense.

He definitely wasn't the worst player that series. Far from it. He probably was the best, but when you factor in defense I don't think he was "unstoppable".

The one thing the Celtics do that for some reason other teams don't is they actually attack Luka on defense and try to expose them instead of letting the opposing coaches hide them. And frankly, it's also why last year I think the "live by the 3, die by the 3" approach killed the Celtics in the Knicks series. Brunson and KAT are bad defenders and KAT was also in foul trouble a few of those games but the Celtics just let them off easy and just chucking away.

[Phantom255x]

Luka over the last two weeks has absolutely looked like an MVP candidate, and I'll admit the Lakers have seemingly turned it around. I think now I'd put them in that same tier as OKC-SAS-LAL-DEN, though I'd probably still pick OKC + SAS in a series against them, but it's close.

Funny enough right now if it stands, it would be a Lakers vs. Nuggets first round matchup. Doncic makes that a whole lot interesting and probably bridges that gap between LAL and DEN in a playoff series. Jokic-Murray vs. Lebron-Luka and both teams have solid benches and pretty good #3 options (Reaves and healthy Gordon). I'd love to see that.

[Vermont Green]

I don't know, I think LAL has a really good roster on paper and I was surprised that they weren't doing better earlier in the season.  Luka carried a much less talented DAL team to the finals in 2023-24.  And Lebron is still plenty good if they can nurse him along so he is healthy for the playoffs.  Smart, Reaves, and Ayton are good enough complementary players.

Interesting how they stack up vs. the current BOS starters (order Tatum and Brown however you want)

Tatum        Doncic
Brown        LeBron
White         Smart
Scheierm    Reaves
Queta         Ayton

If you look at this as top talent to least talented in the starting line-up for each team, I'd go
Brown        Doncic
Tatum        LeBron
White         Reaves
Queta         Smart
Scheierman Ayton
Each of the top 4 matchups go in the Celtics' favor. 
Someone could try to argue Luka over Brown but JB plays great defense and cannot be picked on at that end of the floor.  Luka, despite supposed improvements this year, is still a defensive sieve. 
Baylor/Ayton could be in the C's favor as well since he's found his shooting stroke the past couple of months and his rebounding numbers have been excellent for his position.  Switch out Hauser for Baylor it's still an argument over whether he's better than Ayton -- Sam's D has been vastly underrated this year but he doesn't vary his offense as much as Baylor or rebound as much although he's still pretty productive on the defensive boards.

I like my match ups better.

I look at is as Brown/Tatum vs. Doncic/Lebron, in whatever order you want.  Both Brown and Tatum play better defense than Doncic and even Lebron at this stage, but Doncic and Lebron are right there with Brown and Tatum.

Then I like comparing White to Smart because they are two veterans that play more or less the same position.  Smart seems to be playing better lately, based on box score +/-.  It seem that whenever I look, Smart has the best +/- for the game.  Ends up that way a lot for White too.  I take White over Smart for sure, but Marcus is right there

Comparing Queta and Ayton seems obvious.  Same position, same style of play.  Another pretty even match up in my mind.

Then you are left with Scheierman (or maybe Hauser if they change the rotation) compared to Reaves.  Two young players at pretty much the same position.  Reaves probably wins this match up.