Irving said criticisms of LeBron in L.A. are “a little unfair because of how much time he missed.” “You’re coming to a team like that and you have a lot of the responsibility, and you come back in the middle of the regular season, it’s hard because now other teams are gearing up for the playoffs, that next level of play,” Irving said. “Bron knows about it, (Rajon) Rondo knows about it, but Kuz (Kyle Kuzma) and Brandon Ingram, he’s trying to teach these guys well about what it takes to win consistently in this league.
Irving said criticisms of LeBron in L.A. are “a littl…
March 29, 2023 | 1:38 pm EDT Update
Damian Lillard picks Lu Dort as the best defender in the NBA
Damian Lillard is one of the NBA’s most feared scorers, and it didn’t take him long to answer who he thinks is the best defender in the NBA. “Lu Dort,” Lillard said. “I think he has the perfect balance of strength, quickness, speed and desire to do it. And he’s young. So I just think he is the best at it.”
“It’s like he is a wall on wheels,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “You are not turning the corner on him. The Leonard play the other night – we’ve seen that countless times in game flow, where it’s like: ‘You are not going anywhere.’ It’s incredible.”
When Lillard sees Oklahoma City and Dort on the schedule, he says he slightly alters his approach. Lillard is always an relentless attacker, but he says he makes sure to establish that aggressiveness even earlier when playing Dort. “I just know what I’m dealing with,” Lillard said. “With a guy like him, I go at him first, so he knows he isn’t going to come in here thinking he is the boss of this s—. He’s going to have to be on his job, and he’s going to have to know that from the beginning.”
