GAME 57: DAL (31-26) vs. SAC (31-24) | 122-114 WIN

[Branduil]

It's a different energy and vibe with Luka out.  Green is certainly more assertive and he needs to keep that assertiveness when Luka returns and that is definitely something to watch.

Some of this is Kyrie and learning his teammates and Mavs sets, but he's doing things that Luka should learn from.  Kyrie wanted other players taking the ball up the court and initiating the offense.  It helps that he's amazing playing off the ball.  No idea if the stats would agree with my eyes, but it feels like more people are touching the ball on possessions and there is more movement.   Kidd should have had the team doing this before Kyrie got here.

This isn't to bash Luka.  He'll figure this out too but hopefully the possessions of him taking the air out of the ball and the late clock step back threes are toned down considerably.  The great news is that he can get a bucket driving to the rim any time he wants he can rely on this more throughout the game as I think his exhaustion level is going to go way down.  Ideally I'd love for both of these guys scoring average to be in the mid-20s.

I think they were trying to do this, for a while. The problem is that guys like DFS, THJ, Bullock, McGee etc. just aren't good enough at it, at least not as the first relief valve. Dinwiddie could do it, but a lot of times he just didn't. Same with Wood. I mean the talent problem, and particularly ball-moving talent problem, was very real. So obviously Kyrie helps a lot there, but so does the development of Green and Hardy, and moving them into the rotation.