This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Gooood morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win! Thank you so much for giving us a bit of your time today. We appreciate you!
Some NBA Finals, huh? This might be the worst Finals I’ve watched since the Spurs cleaned up LeBron James’ Cavaliers back in 2007. That’s exactly what this feels like.
On one side, you’ve got what legitimately might be one of the best teams ever assembled in the Boston Celtics. On the other side, you’ve got a super-talent in Luka Doncic carrying a bunch of weight on his shoulders. That’s always a recipe for disaster when the talent disparity is so stark.
RELATED: The Mavs are living (and mostly dying) off of Luka Doncic
But it almost looked like things would work out for once in Game 3. The Mavericks launched a valiant comeback effort in the fourth quarter after trailing by as much as 21 points.
Dallas cut the lead to 3 behind the brilliance of Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Then this happened.
Luka Dončić is fouled out with a blocking foul against Jaylen Brown on this play.
It's his first time being fouled out this season.pic.twitter.com/cUroS5et73
— BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) June 13, 2024
Doncic fouled out with four minutes left in the game and a chance on the other end to tie or take the lead.
He was called for a blocking foul in transition on Jaylen Brown and it was extremely close. Personally, I think it was a charge. But this was too close of a call for officials to overturn.
Today, the prevailing narrative around this is that the officials ruined this game because of Doncic fouling out. Even Luka, himself, fed into that narrative after the game last night. “I don’t want to say nothing, but six fouls in the NBA Finals?” he said in his press conference. He gestured his arms up to show his position and said, “I’m like this? Come on, man. Be better than that.
It’s always easy to blame the officials when their fingerprints are all over the game like this. But you can’t blame the officials here — you’ve got to blame Doncic, who managed to pick up four fouls in nearly eight minutes of action in the fourth quarter.
When you watch the tape, there’s only one foul you can really complain about — his fifth where Jaylen Brown hooks him on a drive. That’s it!
Luka's 6 fouls
1. Fouls Tatum
2. Frustration foul/bad steal attempt
3. Offensive Foul
4. Fouls Payton Pritchard after he gets past him
5. Gets locked up with JB
6. Blocking call defending JB pic.twitter.com/569xEwmJKj— Andrew Schlecht (@AndrewKSchlecht) June 13, 2024
The rest are legitimate fouls and don’t happen if Doncic is a stronger defender in those spots. He’s been spectacularly bad all series long.
That’s what this boils down to. Blame the officials all you want. Complain about calls and no-calls if you must. But those fouls aren’t on the refs — they’re on Luka. And if the Mavs are ever going to win anything with him, he has to clean that up. Period.
This series is over, but maybe it’ll be a learning experience for everyone on the Mavs side.
Moral victories with Team USA
The US Men’s National Team played Brazil to a 1-1 draw to bounce back from Saturday’s embarrassing 5-1 loss to Colombia.
Coming into this game, there’s no way you could’ve convinced me that the USMNT would’ve played Brazil’s star-studded roster this closely. I mean, if Colombia did that to the U.S., what did we think Brazil would do?
But Team USA held steady, even after falling down 1-0 early on in the 16th minute following a goal from Rodrygo, who absolutely snapped the net with this one.
Christian Pulisic came through with a free kick to tie the game up and Matt Turner was unflappable in the net aside from the one early goal. Team USA looked legitimately good!
Look, folks. I know a win is a win and this definitively is not one. But I’ll tell you what — that was a mighty impressive draw. Copa America starts in a week and some change. This team might actually be ready.
The Lakers are back on with JJ Redick
So after the Dan Hurley talks broke down, things are back on between the Lakers and ESPN’s JJ Redick.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Lakers will now “formally interview” Redick for the team’s coaching vacancy this weekend. He’ll move to the “forefront” of the coaching search if he performs well.
Honestly, it already sounded like he was in the lead considering that we’ve heard almost nothing about any other candidates outside of Hurley and, maybe, James Borrego at this point.
But, listen. Lakers. Please hire this man. Rob Pelinka, please save us. I might lose it if I ever have to hear Redick talking about “ethical buckets” on my television broadcast again.
Quick hits: Lucas Oil Stadium is a pool now … Meet Rob Dillingham … and more
— Here’s Michelle Martinelli on how Lucas Oil Stadium became the home for U.S. Olympic swimming trials
— Bryan Kalbrosky interviewed Rob Dillingham for his Prospect Park series ahead of the NBA Draft. Get buckets, Rob!
— Here’s Andrew Joseph talking about things I don’t understand with Cricket. All I know is Team USA lost and I’m sad about it.
— The Mets announcer zinging Aaron Rodgers with a Pat McAfee joke is perfect. Here’s Charles Curtis with more.
— Robert Zeglinski ranked the 11 best players at UEFA Euro 2024.
— Brian Windhorst cooking Luka Doncic here is absolutely spot on.
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading. We appreciate the time! Happy Thursday. Let’s chat again tomorrow. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️