while we are in an era of NBA basketball where filling up the box score is much more common than ever before what Luca donich has been doing the past two weeks raises that bar even further he broke the record for consecutive 30o triple doubles and I'm here to break down exactly how he's doing it and why he continues to inch closer to winning the argument for NBA MVP just looking at Lucas's averages during this eight game stretch might make your eyes bulge particularly at his scoring numbers but I want to start with his passing since
this is what opens up everything else to his game his use of no look passes is next level watch how his eye gaze to the corner pulls Javon Carter away from his man and the allow as an easy dunk he does it again as Gafford cuts down the middle of the lane Julian Phillips is so concerned with the skip to the corner and following Luca's eyes that he leaves the guy right under the hoop for positioning that no one can stop that said is it really a true no look Luca watches gaffer's initial cut so
he now knows where he is without needing to stare a hole right through him but the accuracy is still amazing let's do a quick breakdown of how pick and rolls work and why they're so hard to defend as Luca comes around the Lively ball screen to his left the defense looks to be in decent position Lively's man needs to step over as Lucas man is chasing from behind but this requires haime hakz to leave his man in the corner to bump down on the rle man this is the first Defender Luca checks his eye gaze
up to a potential lob sucks HZ down even further then the no Look inair Laser to Clea in the corner generates a good look from three here's another example with a handoff where Luca can freeze buddy healed from bumping the roll man all the way by turning his head all the way towards Josh Green before throwing the lob to Lively for another dunk he not being fancy just to be fancy his eye gaze is an extremely important manipulator of the defense he uses it later in the game in transition as well where buddy hopes Luca
isn't paying attention to the streaking PJ Washington but at the moment Luca grabs the rebound you can see him track PJ as he starts hustling down Court he doesn't have to look at him anymore he can check where the other Defenders are to know he's wide open but to throw a lead pass accurately without looking as a special skill as Washington gets the open look here's another great example of defensive manipulation as Luca gets towards the Baseline targets the Easy Pass of the corner to an open Josh Green watch how RJ Barrett takes the bait
while Luca hovers in the air so he can fire this pass across his body right through the net on the numbers so all Washington has to do is catch it and shoot it he tortured Toronto with his passing all night and this is my favorite he short hops his gather splits a double team Scotty Barnes his worried about The Gafford cut and has no reason to think his man would ever get a pass back to the left corner I mean go back to the beginning Luca never looks over to that side of the floor at
all he just knows the corner is filled because they always fill the corners but the over the-shoulder hook pass without even turning his head one degree in that direction is the kind of stuff we'd normally see in an All-Star Game and Luca is out here making professionals look foolish multiple times a game on this one he might have tried to be fancy since there's no need for decep when Jaylen Brown is completely sleeping on Kyrie running in front of him speaking of Kyrie you don't get this many triple doubles without being able to just pass
the ball to a scorer like him and just let him do his thing I'm not even sure if we should count these as assists since Kyrie is doing all the work but it certainly lets Luca get a little bit of rest where he can make a simple pass and let Irving put on a show and that's a big part of what Luca is doing every night putting on a show so why not make money based off his performance and that's where sleep comes in the ultimate fantasy sports app what's cool is that you can set
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let's look at his scoring during this stretch since he puts on a master class in footwork and timing every night of course the pick and roll is where he gets most of his points the Mavs offense is not fancy as they run a handoff and then flip it into a pick and roll back to Luca's right he's so effective using his size that Butler can't get back in front bam probably feels good about luring the mid-range jumper but between 5 and 9 fet Luca is only behind Nicola yic in field goal percentage in the entire
NBA the most comp at the offense gets a Spain or stack pick and roll where Josh Green comes up to back screen the ball screener man donic can't even Shake Aaron neith but he's always under control lets neith fly by as he Sid steps the Euro floater fade away you may notice that when Luca goes to his right he almost always drives all the way to the hoop they love this double ball screen in that direction and once he gets his defender on his hip he will not surrender the advantage as he has mastered all
manner of Pull-Up and floater from every angle the bast majority of his three-point shots come off the dribble out of the pick and roll but also when he goes to his left not only that but he loves to utilize a right foot jab step into the gather and left right setback for his two motion Above The Head release Point even if they set the screen to his right he can reject it back to his left jab that right foot in front end the dribble then left right step back which allows his right hip and elbow
to be aligned to the hoop as well as have more space to drop this in over his Defenders I think the threat of his passing and his shiftiness allows him to continually shoot his threes this way without the defense being able to key in very well it was remarkable going through all this footage to see him utilize the same footwork over and over to get the defense on their heels step back for more separation then to motion this thing into the basket even on his isolations he would show that right foot jab then step back
for the jumper one would think it's a tell that Defenders would pick up and be all over smothering his slowish release and causing him to miss more shots against a big man in isolation watch how he tests out that right foot jab a few times to see if Chris porzingis will lunge at him to take away the shot when he feels comfortable KP won't react he lulls him to sleep with one more dribble and a little stroll to his left before splitting and stepping back with plenty of room but I caught one example against Evan
fornier where he shows that right foot forward like a jab step but then turns it into a tween it wasn't perfect but it's the kind of shiftiness that doesn't allow Defenders there to sell out when they think he's going to step back here's another example against the Sixers where he uses that right foot jab step to show the step back but then quick tween to explode into the lane to his right and then watch how he slows down the final step to let Batum drift away before laying in the easy shot that said I feel
like some of the elite Defenders can figure this out and find a way to either strip the ball when he leans on that front leg or close the distance quicker to more effectively contest these shots of course I found an example where he utilizes the step back as a shot fake before stepping through and finding one of his favorite targets and Daniel Gafford for an assist and it does help that the refs let him get away with the blatant travel on this one as he establishes his right foot as The Gather step the left foot
becomes the pivot he then lifts the left foot and puts it back down but you get the idea it's hard to guard this guy with the addition of lively to start the season and gaffard in a mid-season trade they've Juiced the rle man efficiency they'd be number one in this category by a mile over the past last eight games and it's what makes Lucas scoring so dominant the threat of the lob to Lively causes the defense to get stuck not committing to anything when gaffard sets the ball screen Luca can slip Nifty pocket passes early
to him so he can do the rest with a varied finishing package gafford's chemistry with Luca is apparent and he's willing to just throw it up there knowing gaffard will finish strong and Lively feeds off the gravity Luca commands coming around his ball screens I like setting a pin away first for Luca to get his man trailing this forces on Andre Drummond to step up and stop the ball leaving poor Javon Carter to just look up at a man a foot taller cram the ball through the ring if you don't believe me about Luca's gravity
how about three Defenders chasing into the sideline Luca having his pick of wideopen teammates and this is how a player like Lively shoots 75% from the field oh and gaffard is shooting even higher in his 13 games with the Mavericks by feeding off of Luca's vision and feel so Luca is clearly a triple double machine and nailing 30p Point triple doubles might be the new Norm with so many heliocentric offenses designed round one person the Mavericks offensive rating overall is ranked sixth in the league and when Luca goes to the bench their offense would rank
near the bottom over the past eight games their offense has been almost unmatched but they've only won four of those games against some lowquality opponents and it's easy to see why their defense is one of the worst in the league they struggle at all facets of Defending not enough pressure on the ball can't keep the ball in front and their weak side rotations can be almost nonexistent of course there are plenty of possessions where Luca is clearly at fault and teams would be wise to just go at him mercilessly in the playoffs to either Tire
him out or get him into foul trouble that said when you're creating this much offense on a nightly basis the overall net result is still in very positive territory so he needs Jason kid and his teammates to figure out out some things in a hurry if they want to get past the first round of the playoffs and I'll admit it I really want to see Luca play in the Conference Finals and treat us to more of the passing and scoring displays that have him on track to potentially be the greatest of all time
