Jovan Buha

speaker

326 appearances 10 recordings 3 series first heard Nov 2024 last heard 26 Jun

Jovan Buha’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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The Athletic NBA Daily · Luka’s worst game as a Laker + Draymond’s defensive mind · 4 Apr 2025 podcast

So I think Golden State, like this is our first time seeing Luka versus the Warriors with the Lakers and Jimmy versus the Lakers with the Warriors and certainly some concerns on the Lakers side.

Yeah, I would say that outside of the first couple games when he was still just feeling out the group, this was his worst game as a Laker after the game. We just spoke with him and he said his performance was unacceptable and he took blame and ownership for... his performance tonight and just said that he has to be better.

And then he felt like he let his teammates down tonight, the way that he played and especially offensively that, that, you know, he should have been better. So I think it was a combination of golden States size and athleticism on the perimeter. And like, I thought they tried to target Quentin post at the various points, Luca Austin and LeBron and Austin had some success against him, but like,

They were basically like not able to get by him. And I think that was a bit concerning. And then defensively, I actually think people are going to look at the point total and the six or 17 shooting. I think defensively, what was more concerning for Luca tonight, where he was just relentlessly targeted by Steph and by the Warriors offense. And the Lakers started to try to hide him on.

Kavon Looney and Draymond and whoever was the non-threat as a roller or as a score that you wanted to involve in the action. And it didn't matter. They would just run decoy actions to get Luka switched on to someone else, and then they would bring that guy into the fray.

So the Lakers, I think, are going to have to figure that out because Steph is not the only Apex superstar in the West that they're going to face that's going to try to target Luka. So they're going to have to come up with a better defensive strategy than just switching everything.

Because as we saw, when you switch everything, you can pick your matchups and golden state, what was picking on Luca tonight.

It's going to be interesting to see how that breaks down because in recent games, AR, Austin has been their best closer and their best shot creator. And they've run a lot of Austin LeBron two-man game. And that's a little bit easier for them to get into rather than LeBron Luka, just because with LeBron and Luka, it's typically like-sized defenders. So they're just going to switch that.

But with Austin and LeBron, it's often not like-sized defenders. So they have a decision to make of they could either try to trap and then you got the short role playmaking and the four on three advantage, or they can't switch that. Then either LeBron has a smaller defender on him. And Austin has a bigger, slower defender on him.

So the Austin-LeBron two-man game has been more of their bread and butter in late-game situations outside of just Luka being Luka. So I think they're still figuring out that balance. But in terms of when the ball is in one of those three players' hands, the guy that they've actually looked the best with recently... has been Austin in these late-game situations. We saw it in the Chicago game.

We saw it in various points of the Indiana game. So, of course, he is third in the pecking order, so I want to be clear with that. But LeBron and Luka, I think, if anything, you could look for ways to play those guys off of him rather than vice versa. But the one thing, though, is if someone is going to be off the ball – I think LeBron's actually the best catch-and-shoot guy among these three.

So because of LeBron's versatility, I think he's going to have the ball in his hands the least among the three. But he also is the guy who can create advantages in the post just with his size and his strength. So they're still figuring out this crunch time offense and what it's going to look like.

It's been interesting to see they've largely been better defensively throughout this stretch, as we've talked about before, than offensively. And I think it's starting to click, that Memphis game. all three guys had 25 plus points, eight plus assists. That was as great as they've looked offensively, but that's not a nightly thing. And they're still working through that.

Well, I think you mentioned Steph's ability to get to the free throw line, and I thought he did a masterful job of that. I think it was kind of like a throwback where LeBron was really targeting Steph down the stretch and trying to get him switched on to him in the post, and LeBron was going back to the bully ball days. But I would say for the Lakers –

Warriors matchups, this felt like the most firepower Steph has had on his side. And I think in recent years, the Lakers have tended to fare well in this matchup that they won in 2023. And then even this season, they won the season series 3-1. But I think LA really missed Anthony Davis tonight. That's actually something now that we're talking this out. I think...

AD was a guy that, in this matchup in particular, for as great as Draymond is defensively, AD still got four inches on him and another 20 pounds or so. And just was one of the guys, one of the few guys that Draymond could struggle to defend in the post. And with the offensive rebounds and the pick and roll game, he just brought a certain level of physicality to their offense.

and a paint presence that they just did not have last night consistently. So I think that was something. But it felt like for the first time in this matchup, at least over the last few years, Steph had just as much firepower on his side with Brzezinski and Kaminga, Butler, Moody. They had all these guys that could match the Lakers offensively. Whereas the last few years, it has felt more L.A.

's had more weapons offensively, in my opinion.

He's incredible. You know, I'm fortunate enough to have a vote this year and I'm going to strongly consider voting for him for defensive player of the year. He's certainly going to be on my ballot. But just where he ends up, I still have to make that decision and go through all the film and the numbers and whatnot. But he I mean, he's like the one thing I would also take away.

from tonight what was earlier in the season the Lakers kind of came into their small ball identity against the Warriors there was that Christmas Day game where Austin they're running a lot of screening actions with Austin and he was attacking Golden State the short roll and like from that point on they make the DFS trade they start to build that up and then they play the Warriors three times over the span of a month and it felt like the Lakers from a small ball perspective were actually able to match if not

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