Game 2 2024 Playoffs Dirkie Thread: LUKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chicagojk]

10+minutes played last night, sorted by age and most minutes played....

25
32
25
27
20
23
25
21

Look on the bright side, at least you might get a championship out of me taking insufferable victory laps.  

Though I sure as hell did not see the Kyrie sanity thing coming.

I´ll actually give the Dirkie to the Mavs coaching staff for making impeccable important challenges. Kidd and his crew are never wrong, while I could immediately tell that the Wolves challenges would all fail. Also everybody and their momma saw that the ball was off Minny with 2.7 left in the first half, but they decided not to challenge. They´d have won the challenge, but wouldn´t have had one to overturn the 106-108 out of bounds call. So for all heroics by Doncic, Irving, Gafford and Lively in this game credit to Kidd and his staff. 

Also for the audacity to play Hardy and Green, never in a million years that happens under Carlisle. We should call Green "once a week, twice on Sunday", cause that´s how often I flip-flop between kepping him and trading him. A fatigued Edwards is the perfect match-up for the energizer bunny. Hardy just has no conscious and for this team bench it´s important. 

Final comment on Kidd´s coaching. I loved his timeouts. Every time PJ "grapefruits" Washington had the ball in open space from broken plays, Kidd called a timeout before Washington could do some crazy dribbling stuff.

What makes this extra fun is I thought Dallas was hiding in plain site all year.   All this narrative that Dallas mortgaged their future like the Suns or Bucks completely missed the point.   As you said, look at the ages above.  Not a bunch of 30 year olds.   Yes, they are out two first round picks after this year.  The pick swaps were good gambles by the Spurs and OKC, but time will tell if they have good value.   

Green has always been a tough evaluation for me.   There are times where I think he is about to break through, but than he goes back.   Early last night, I thought the game looked too big for him.   But he then played some really good ball in the second half.   I am really uncertain if this is who he is or if he has another level where he develops into a really excellent glue guy.   

Hardy needs to have a short leash.  I am not quite sure he is ready yet, but man he has looked the part the past 3 games.  Still I am worried that he is capable of a real bad stretch...more so than the other older guys.  Still, he has it.    Mavs got that pick right.  They just need to continue his develop.   I think he is a 20 minute player next year.