In the first three games of the series, the Golden State Warriors made life miserable for the Dallas Mavericks. The Warriors were handling Luka Doncic better than both the Jazz and Suns by making life difficult for him at the point of attack and using a hefty dose of zone defense.

In Game 4, the Warriors played a ton of zone defense, but Luka shined a light on how it can be exposed by doing something everyone’s been begging him to do all season long: cut off the ball.

The zone defense works relatively well when Luka passes the ball and remains stagnant outside the 3-point line. It’s too easy to defend the other guys that way. But when Luka puts the ball on the deck and attacks the rim, things get more difficult. Then, throw in some off-ball cuts when his teammates have the ball and he’s basically impossible to guard.

Check out how he got his first field goal in Game 4:

Luka gives up his dribble and passes the ball to Frank Ntilikina — something we are used to seeing. But what he does differently this time is instead of putting the pressure on Frank to create off the dribble, he simply cuts past his defender who had over-committed to the pump fake. Draymond Green is the guy who is supposed to be defending the rim on this play, but he turns his back on Luka assuming he wasn’t going to cut to the rim without the ball in his hands. Luka makes him pay by dashing to the rim and Frank gets an easy assist.

Later, in the fourth quarter, Jalen Brunson had the ball in the corner with the other four guys spaced out around the perimeter. Normally, this is a play that would result in Brunson having to create for himself and it’d be a toss-up whether it would work or not as the shot clock winds down. But check this one out:

In the play above, Luka takes advantage of a sleeping Jordan Poole at the top of the Warriors’ zone and cuts to the middle of the floor where Brunson gives him the ball and Luka pirouettes to the rim.

That right there is what the Mavs need Luka to do. When he’s moving off the ball, he opens up the entire offense and renders the Warriors’ zone defense useless.

Luka is one of the brightest basketball minds in the world, so it’s no surprise he figured this out. He just needs to be locked in enough (and in good enough shape) to cut consistently even if he’s not getting the ball. Cutting hard when the opponent is in a zone is always useful, whether you receive the pass or not.

Another way Luka was able to punish the zone defense was noticing when he had a mismatch at the top. Take a look:

In this play, Luka brings the ball up the floor and immediately notices Jordan Poole at the top of the zone. He immediately turns and starts to back down Poole. He angles his post-up to get away from the help defense and then easily overpowers Poole and gets a layup.

These are little things that turn into big things. Obviously, the big storyline from Game 4 is that the Mavericks are a better team when they make threes (shocker!), but little things like cutting off the ball and finding mismatches end up demoralizing the defense and get your team more open looks as the game progresses.

Is it too late for the Mavs to win this series? Maybe. Time will tell. But Luka’s off-ball movement is something he needs to keep working on as his career progresses. It’s the type of thing that will separate his play from the oft-compared prime James Harden.

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A disciplinary committee for the State Bar of Texas on Wednesday filed a professional misconduct lawsuit against Attorney General Ken Paxton for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections in four battleground states won by President Joe Biden.

The filing in Collin County by the Commission for Lawyer Discipline, a standing committee of the state bar, is an extraordinary move by the body that regulates law licenses in the state against the sitting attorney general. It stems from complaints against Paxton for a lawsuit that the U.S. Supreme Court threw out, saying Texas lacked standing to sue and that Paxton’s political opponents called “frivolous.”

It seeks a sanction against Paxton, which will be determined by a judge, that could range from a private reprimand to disbarment.

In its filing, the commission said Paxton had misrepresented that he had uncovered substantial evidence that “raises serious doubts as to the integrity of the election process in the defendant states.”

“As a result of Respondent’s actions, Defendant States were required to expend time, money, and resources to respond to the misrepresentations and false statements contained in these pleadings and injunction requests even though they had previously certified their presidential electors based on the election results prior to the filing of Respondent’s pleadings,” the lawsuit read.

The lawsuit also says Paxton made “dishonest” representations that an “outcome determinative” number of votes were tied to unregistered voters, votes were switched by a glitch with voting machines, state actors had unconstitutionally revised their election statutes and “illegal votes” had been cast to affect the outcome of the election.

The lawsuit says Paxton’s allegations “were not supported by any charge, indictment, judicial finding, and/or credible or admissible evidence, and failed to disclose to the Court that some of his representations and allegations had already been adjudicated and/or dismissed in a court of law.”

The complaint asks for a finding of professional misconduct against Paxton, as well as attorney’s fees and “an appropriate sanction.”

Earlier this month, Paxton had said he’d been notified that he and one of his top deputies would be sued for professional misconduct following a state bar investigation into multiple complaints against them. The lawsuit against First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster in Williamson County was made public that day. But the lawsuit against Paxton was not filed until Wednesday, one day after Paxton defeated Land Commissioner George P. Bush in the GOP runoff for attorney general.

“Texas Bar: I’ll see you and the leftists that control you in court,” Paxton said earlier this month. “I’ll never let you bully me, my staff or the Texans I represent into backing down or going soft on defending the Rule of Law — something for which you have little knowledge.”

Later that day, Paxton announced an investigation into the Texas Bar Foundation for “facilitating mass influx of illegal aliens” by donating money to groups that “encourage, participate in, and fund illegal immigration at the Texas-Mexico border.” The foundation is made up of attorneys and raises money to provide legal education and services. It is separate from the State Bar of Texas, which is an administrative arm of the Texas Supreme Court.

The lawsuit against Paxton stems from multiple complaints filed by Kevin Moran, president of the Galveston Island Democrats; David Wellington Chew, former chief justice of the Eighth District Court of Appeals; retired attorney Neil Kay Cohen; attorney Brynne VanHettinga; and Gershon “Gary” Ratner, the co-founder of Lawyers Defending American Democracy.

Cohen said he was outraged by Paxton’s attempt to overturn the election results and filed a 51-page grievance to the state bar on why he thought the attorney general had violated state disciplinary rules for attorneys. The grievance was initially rejected, but Cohen and several others won their appeal to move the complaint forward. On Wednesday, Cohen said he was happy the state bar was moving forward with the lawsuit.

“I wasn’t sure this day would come,” Cohen said. “I wasn’t sure until they actually filed it that they were actually going to file it.”

Still, Cohen said, his reaction is tempered because Paxton has so far avoided punishment for other accusations that he’s violated the law. Paxton has faced securities fraud charges for seven years now, and more recently has come under FBI investigation after eight former top deputies accused him of bribery and abuse of office. Paxton denies all wrongdoing.

“I’m not sure what it matters,” he said. “Paxton’s in a lot of trouble already. If the worst that can happen to him is getting disbarred, well, compared to going to jail for obstructing a criminal investigation or for stock fraud, the penalties should be super embarrassing but the penalties are slight compared to the criminal things.”

Cohen said he still hoped those cases eventually go to trial, but that the professional misconduct suit by the bar is an opportunity to dispel the prevalent idea among some that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

“I would like something on the record that these claims of a stolen election are bogus,” he said.

Disclosure: State Bar of Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Stories like the one you just read come to life at The Texas Tribune Festival, the Tribune’s annual celebration of politics and policy happening Sept. 22-24 in downtown Austin. For just a little bit longer you can grab a discounted ticket to this year’s event, but act fast — savings end on May 31! Buy now and save.

Now this is a trend we can get behind!

Megan Fox traded in her heels for sneakers while attending Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker’s extravagant wedding celebration in Portofino, Italy, on Sunday.

For the cliffside nuptials, the actress, 36, paired her black corseted Zuhair Murad Couture taffeta gown with matching platform peep-toe heels.

But according to her latest photos from the grand reception – where guests were served a pitiful amount of pasta – Fox switched into a more comfortable pair of shoes to party the night away.

“We went to a wedding…” she captioned Wednesday’s Instagram post, which showed fiancé Machine Gun Kelly lacing up her “Old Skool Sneaker” Vans (whose $65 price tag likely pales in comparison to that of her ceremony shoes).

Fox kept the remainder of her stunning ensemble intact, and it appears MGK, 32, did not change at all.

His goth-glam look – a Dolce & Gabbana blue leopard-print three-piece suit ($5,845) paired with plenty of jewelry – perfectly complemented his date’s outfit, as well as the overall vibe of the Italian wedding.

However, Fox wasn’t the only one who had an outfit change ahead of dinner and dancing, as Kardashian’s famous family came prepared with multiple looks.

Most notably, the bride’s sister, Kim Kardashian, swapped her curve-hugging black lace Dolce & Gabbana gown for a heavily bejeweled crop top and matching hot pants, which she layered atop a skintight catsuit.

How to murder your husband and get caught — tell your cellmate about it.

Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, was convicted of second-degree murder on Wednesday for the 2018 slaying of her husband, 63-year-old chef Daniel Brophy, after telling her cellmate about the killing.

Multnomah County jury delivered its verdict on the “How to Murder Your Husband” author Wednesday morning after a five-week-long trial, according to the Portland Eater.

Nancy’s cellmate, Anndrea Jacobs, testified on May 18, telling prosecutors that the romance novelist had described in detail the distance at which she shot her husband.

Gesturing to the jury, Jacobs held out her arms to signify the distance between Nancy and her deceased husband and said, “She told me that he was shot two times to the heart and that … she showed me the distance.”

Jacobs told authorities that her relationship with Nancy became “very awkward” after the exchange.

Nancy had shot her husband in the back and then while he was on the floor in 2018 at the Oregon Culinary Institute where he worked, according to police.

Prosecutors said that Nancy had purchased the same make and model of the gun that was used in the murder of her husband, and believe that she had swapped out the barrel of the gun to make the weapon harder to trace.

The defense claimed that Nancy’s gun purchase was for research in her work as a novelist. However, that claim didn’t seem to hold up with the jury.

In addition to the essay “How to Murder Your Husband,” Nancy Crampton Brophy had written another novel titled “The Wrong Husband.”

The convicted novelist and self-tattletale has yet to be sentenced.