Game 5: Denver Nuggets (5-1) vs. Dallas Mavericks (4-1) | 114-125 loss

[SleepingHero]

Kyrie Irving felt rusty in his return from a two-game injury absence, but he sees a lot of positives from how the Mavericks played after a poor first half:

"I felt rusty to begin the game. We are in Denver, a mile above sea level, so I knew it would be interesting tonight, going against a well-oiled machine. They're the champions of the league. They showed they're great in their intensity and a lot of effort plays tonight. I think we can take this kind of butt-whooping that we took in the first half and really learn some things.

"We had a good second half or last three quarters. We can take some of the positives, but a lot of it was just effort plays and position plays that we can improve on, and I think it's good that we fixed it earlier in the season so it can help us later on down the line, it was a good experience."