Even though we left quite something on the table: Amir had a terrible foul on a screen, then drove into a crowd, Norm wasn’t good at all, Mann was super-hesitant from 3 and had a sequence with a blown layup followed by a turnover that could have really given Dallas some momentum. It was an excellent half, not a perfect one.

Second half was awful to watch: Dallas defended a lot better. But when you don’t generate any advantage, there’s no point in dribbling down the clock and the air out of the ball. We continued to miss some good looks inside, then walked away from paint offense and let them off the hook completely. Zu was great inside and Mann was an absolute force on the offensive glass. Our shot quality and offensive balance sucked – in very large parts due to the approach Harden and PG took. It worked because we had a huge lead and Harden took care of the ball. It won’t work whatsoever if we’re either cold or the game is somewhat close. We were poor in transition defense as usual.

Ty Lue coached a great game overall. Even with the unwatchable second half, I put that squarely on the players and don’t mind playing the clock more than the scoring game. Getting the win was what mattered.

Big picture: very encouraging win without Kawhi, loved getting this one without sweating it. But: it’s only one win and we need counters to Dallas’ second half adjustments.

One word on the refs: average performance. Nothing really to complain early, the calls they missed mostly went both ways, albeit that they missed quite some for us. The one I took issue with was the decision following the Zubac’/Kleber kerfuffle: Kleber pushing his forearm into Zu’s back and neck area was THE trigger to the whole situation. They ignored it completely and the punishment was heavily lopsided. Terrible with regards to player protection and letting the instigator get away with it