Giannis’ Injury, Knicks-Celtics, Playoff Seeding & MVP Race | The Lowe Post
On The Lowe Post, Zach Lowe asks injury expert Jeff Stotts about the extent of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s injury and his potential recovery timetable. Then, The Athletic’s Mo Dakhil joins to discuss Knicks-Celtics, playoff seeding and the MVP race.
0:00 – Welcome
3:49 – Details on Giannis’ Soleus Calf Injury
8:00 – Can The Bucks Lock In 2nd Seed Without Giannis?
14:40 – Giannis’ History Of Leg Injuries
17:38 – Worried About The Celtics?
25:20 – Jalen Brunson’s Rise To Stardom
29:06 – New York Knicks Haven’t Received Enough Credit
32:55 – Jrue Holiday $135M Contract Extension
36:59 – Bucks Trying A New Starting Lineup
43:06 – Bucks Are Biggest Threat To The Celtics
45:30 – Nuggets Bench Players On The Rise
52:17 – Luka vs. Jokic For MVP
1:01:13 – How Far Can Suns Go In Playoffs
1:12:56 – Seeds No. 8 – 10 In Tight Race
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33 Comments
Of course CELTICs know what they are doing coasting to add more pressure to those teams who are very desperate right now to get a decent seeding! I hope this is not part of their DNA to play lackluster basketball and they are just trying to be healthy going into the Playoffs!!!!
These talking heads, shows, companies, ESPN, etc all just prove that the people at the top are very, very ignorant. 👀
They have no reason why Jokic is ahead other than – “I think, or maybe, or possibly” jeez man.
Worried about the Celtics? They haven't run a real offensive set in like 2 weeks. They're going at literally 50%.
It's not a coincidence their level of play changed on 3/21. What happened on 3/21? They clinched the East.
Sorry but that’s a dumb take. 73 points and his averages says nobody figured him out.
5:48 – a comment someone that doesn’t watch makes. Only guard that post up more is Demar. Their roster is constructed to support high pick and roll where Luka’s powers are. They are not a movement team. Mavs have 2 of the best isolation scorers in the game including clutch. What’s next? You want him to play off ball like Steph and Rip Hamilton? Let’s play him like Shaq then. Geez.
Jrue getting paid to be almost irrelevant! Lol
It's so strange how throughout this podcast, Lowe keeps saying the only interesting thing at the bottom of the West standings is whether or not the Lakers could get ahead of the Kings for the 8th seed even though the Warriors have the same record as the Lakers and are in the same situation (i. e., if the Kings lose one of their remaining two games and the Warriors (or Lakers) win both of their remaining games, they would surpass the Kings). He seems to be under the impression the Warriors are locked at the 9-10 seed which is definitely not the case. What makes it even odder is it appears he was looking at the standings at the end of the podcast; did he not see the Warrriors record when looking at the standings?
Who also goes on YouTube for 10 minutes and loses at least 2 hours? 😄
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Goalposts moving with Jokic again lol.
Why mvp? "Cause in the playoffs setting…"
But when he won the 1st and 2md Mvp before winning in the playoffs : "playoffs performances do not matter"
Lol.
How is Brunson top 5 mvp but you have him 3rd team all nba 🤦🏾♂️ … u can’t take these guys serious
Lol. Just say advance stats..its stupid but at least is coherent. The reasoning for Jokic this guy chose makes no sense whatsoever
“Connelly” lol
i’m not sure I agree with the doubling luka take, I think luka and jokic are the same in terms of not being able to stop them
So let me get this straight. One guy is bigger and can get closer to the rim….but the guy with the less height is BEATING the tall guy by ever statistical metric? So he is doing it better without the natural gifts and the better team around him. SO THATS WHY HE DOESNT GET MVP?!?!?!????
Dang, the doc wanted to talk hoops and Zack just shut him down lol
These guys are idiots. Phili wins out they pass Orlando for the 6th seed. Even if Nola loses Sunday as long as they win their other game they are locked into the 6th seed. These guys have no idea what they are talking about. Suns have to win both games and have Nola lose both
Why put doncic in the post he is a PG! This fella is an expert? Cmon man.
This was the best MVP convo ive heard. I disagree with Mo but Zach you are on point.
Luka is averaging 7 more points per game than Jokic. Luka is on a 51-52 win team whereas Jokic is on a 54-56 win team, not a huge difference there. The on-off court plus minus is where Jokic has an advantage, but I’d lean Luka because he’s averaging the most combined points, assists, and rebounds by any player since the merger (Embiid was also on this track btw). That’s significant.
Luka and Jokic are not equal in assists???? Luka is 2nd in the league while being 1st in scoring by a large margin.
The League knows who the best player is, Thats why he's doubled over 200 more times than the next guy.
I like you good job
Mo looks like a Jalen Brunson`s Cousin 😁
The MVP award is not choosing who is the best, but who has had the best season. And Luka has had significantly better season than Jokic, individually. He is scoring 7 points per game more, which is huge. He is shooting like Curry and finishing at the rim like Giannis. He draws by far the most double teams in the league. He creates the most open shots in the league. Mavs were extremely injured this season, while Nuggets were mostly healthy. He has had a 73 point game and multiple 40 point triple doubles. He had to carry the team much, much more than Jokic.
And Jokic always plays in set lineups with starters and Nuggets don't have anyone to replace his playmaking when he sits. That skews the advanced stats pretty significantly. And Jokic not scoring so much means that he could coast a lot more than Luka who had to dominate with 34 points per game.
Advanced stats just provide context to pure stats, which became really underrated as of late. I really don't see an argument that Jokic was better. Especially that Luka is also elite in the advanced stats.
They should be calling it a tight three man race, with SGA included.
You’re taking a superficial (and innacurate) look at Doncic, and a very close analytical look at Jokic … while admitting you don’t know what factors into the analytics. Stop voting on the analytics if you don’t fully understand them, because they are context dependent. They are meant to be guidelines so you can add the context and make up your mind, you can’t just look at the analytics and make a case closed judgement… like everyone does now.
Dallas ranks as the #1 team in the clutch, and they obviously try doubling Doncic. He’s the most blitzed player in the league statistically. So is being #1 in the clutch not overcoming that?
Luka averages an entire 8ppg more and 1 assist more, while also ranking #1 in shot quality generated in assists during the entire play by play era. Jokic ranks #8. So there goes your argument that Jokic gets better passes out of the post, which is ridiculous.
Opposing players shoot 70% in the paint when Jokic is the nearest defender. How is that good defense? Doncic ranks in the top 10% in guards in points per possession allowed in post, iso, and spot up defense. His team has been among the best defensively for the last quarter of the season now. Keep up
You are looking for ways to give Jokic this award. None of your reasons stand up to even the briefest inspection of anyone who watches Luka just as closely as Jokic
Terrible explanation for why Luka isn’t mvp
Not a single one of jokics teammates have a single accolade. Remind me what kyrie Irving's resume is
Nuggets roster only gets credit cause a chip yet zero accolades. Denver is about to set a FRANCHISE RECORD for wins
Celtics can’t rebound. Knicks will smash Boston
Hearing these excuses, it’s clearly at a point where you don’t actually have any legit reasons that stand up to scrutiny. You’re just going to give the award to Jokic anyway
How can you say teams can double luka and take him out of the game when he is leading the league in points by a wide margin? Gotta be stupid to say that this season. When jokic won as a 6th seed, and now that does not apply to luka as a 5th seed
@James Harden
10:59
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jokic doesn't "lap the field in every advanced stat". In fact, all of the 3 best descriptive advanced stats we have, (EPM, LEBRON, and LA-RAPM) either don't have Jokic leading or have him barely leading. He is a distant 5th in EPM (24% behind Shai, 11% behind Luka, and 6% behind Giannis). Jokic is in first in LEBRON, but barely (Luka is 5% behind him and Giannis is 7%.) Jokic is 2nd in LA-RAPM, trailing Giannis by 27%. Don;t just look at "box plus minus" which is complete garbage bc it only takes into account pts, rebs, asts, stl, blks, tovs, fls, which doesnt capture anywhere close to all the ways players impact the game.