Game 55: San Antonio Spurs (11-43) vs. Dallas Mavericks (31-23)

[omahen]

Great Kyrie performance.  He was magical.  For what seemed like an so so Luka night, but then you look at his stats for 3 quarters.  amazing.

If you squint your eyes, you are starting to see Lively + Maxi +Green +hopefully healthy Exum + maybe PJ + more rim deterrent with Gafford that the Mavs have several guys who can defend and they may be able to keep at least two on the court at all times.  The added length at the 4 & 5 is a sneaky new development as well. 

PJ's offense has been rough, but I think it says a lot that Kidd had him out there for a long time.  Him and Josh are going to have games where they just don't score a lot.  They just need to find ways to impact the game.

Lets all hope the SA front office can't draft or pull off good trades.  If they do, we are all in trouble.  It is really scary to envision a healthy Wemby 3 years down the road with good players around him.

I was thinking a lot about the role of Green and PJ on offense. Mavs offense is focusing on Luka and Kyrie either playing ISO or going for a PnR. I think in those instances offensive opportunities for Green and PJ are limited as long as the opponent is playing man to man defense. Sure there might be more offensive sets added, especially when there is only one of Luka and Kyrie on the court. Although THJ and Hardy tend to take most of the shots in those instances. 

However, when teams will double Luka, offensive versatility of PJ will be imho very important and he will get far more chances to score. I think last two games opponents mostly played man to man, leaving less opportunity for "the other guys".

All in all, I am very satisfied with offensive versatility this team has. As long as everyone buys into their roles, all will be fine. PJ is honestly the only one I could see as becoming unsatisfied in a relatively limited offensive role.