Luka Doncic has been a handful during these playoffs. He's averaged 28.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, and a playoff-high 8.8 assists, all while playing on a bad knee.
Making his feat even more impressive is that he's gone up against a flurry of the best defenders in the league, who have all been throwing the kitchen sink at him. The Wolves tried every single coverage, and he destroyed all of them.
One of those coverages is a big mistake, according to LeBron James. Here's how he would guard Luka if he were coaching against him.
LeBron James advice on guarding Luka Doncic
Don't blitz Luka Doncic
LeBron gave his thoughts on the best way to guard Doncic during his Mind the Game podcast. The number one piece of advice he gave was to avoid blitzing him.
Blitzing is a ballscreen coverage that entails sending a double-team at Luka. The Wolves used it frequently in the Conference Finals. As LeBron predicted, it didn't work all that well.
"I don't understand it, especially with the shooting they surround him with. It doesn't make sense," LeBron told his co-host JJ Redick. "He's going to make every read."
The Wolves' decision to blitz Luka was not novel. He was the most blitzed player in the league by far, because teams will do anything to get the ball out of his hands. The Lakers also tried blitzing Luka earlier in the year, much to the chagrin of LeBron. "Dante Exum hit five or six 3's," he noted.
The Celtics may end up taking LeBron's advice. They are one of the least frequent blitzing teams, depending on their players to fight over screens quickly and recover instead.
So if blitzing isn't the answer, then what is?
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Mix up coverages
The key to slowing down Luka is to prevent him from knowing what is coming.
"You've got to mix up coverages. How you double, when you double," Redick said. LeBron agreed with this philosophy, and the two laid on specifics on how to change things up.
One approach that both emphasized was that when sending two defenders at Luka, it's vital to change the location and timing of when double-teams come from.
"Is it on the dribble, is it on the catch?" LeBron asked. "Is it coming from the baseline or the [middle of the floor]?" Redick added.
Avoiding blitzing does come with its own set of problems. The other coverages don't work all that well either, as Redick noted.
"Atlanta decided not to blitz Doncic because they were worried about the consequences and he had 73 [points]." Redick said.
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Switch
The best approach to guarding Doncic is probably to switch all ballscreens. But that depends heavily on having like-sized teammates who are capable of switching.
"There's certain teams that can put switch-heavy lineups out there," Redick noted. "You need the personnel and you need to be able to trust certain guys."
This makes the Celtics a great defense to go against Doncic. Everyone in their starting lineup aside from Kristaps Porzingis can switch effectively, limiting the combination of screeners that Doncic can use. And if the Mavericks do try to get Porzingis switched onto Doncic, the Celtics can combat that to some degree by pre-switching.
Al Horford is also too slow to switch onto Luka, but he has had some limited success in those matchups during the regular season. Doncic shot just 3-of-10 against Horford, per NBA tracking data.
Drop
The Celtics will also mix in a lot of drop defense against Luka, positioning Horford and Porzingis closer to the basket. That hasn't been a great option against Luka, because it is vulnerable to pull-up 3's and midrange attempts that he and Kyrie Irving excel at. But it's the coverage that the team's centers feel the most comfortable in, and they had the No. 2 defense in the league by using a lot of it during the regular season.
At the end of the day, Luka is going to beat every coverage that's thrown at him. But he will beat some of them more handily than others.
"What are we willing to give up, rather than what are we willing to stop?" LeBron asked Redick. "You can't stop great guys. Just hope they miss, and you tip your hat."
The Celtics may have to live with Horford and Porzingis trying to stay in front of Doncic from time to time, and they may also have to be okay with Doncic hitting the same tough jumpers that he has throughout these playoffs. He's made every center that he's faced look like Bambi. That's still better than any alternatives.
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