Our biggest challenge in winning this series is Ty Lue figuring out what combos will work. It has been a struggle for him the past 3 seasons despite figuring things out in the ’21 playoffs.

He’s going to have to make some clear moves here not just in terms of the personnel on the floor but what he demands of them from the sidelines when they’re on the floor. For example, can he yank Harden if he’s holding the ball too long? Can he implore PG to make better basketball plays and look for his shot? Can he shift quickly when a move he makes isn’t panning out. Can he read the game flow and play the hot hand?

Just gotta hope that this game action DID NOT CAUSE UNDUE INFLAMMATION. If he’s good to go forward, that development trumps this L.

Zu had a very pedestrian came–basically came down to earth. Have to say Dallas was very aggressive with him and he fumbled/wilted a bit too much. I think he’ll (and the team) adjust. Get him going early and keep him out of foul trouble should be key.

And we didn’t defend with the intensity of game 1 — gotta find that gear on the road. I think we will.

This game was tough to watch–too much chucking and hero ball vs. Mavs clutch shot making and sharing the ball. Watch the film Clips and get better. All in all, sorta happy we got one at this point.

Basically, we settled for a lot of iso ball and contested shots tonight (a constant refrain this season).

I don’t like this loss b/c our offensive process was not good; our lineup selections were not good in Q4; and we didn’t optimize the guys we had on the floor to put them in a position to succeed (Kawhi included given his limitations owing to rust. Like, why the heck is that dude taking 5 3s when he clearly has no legs for it. Give those shots to PG/Norm. Throw it into the post).

If our offensive process gets fixed in these 3 days then I think we’ll win at least 1 game if not 2. If it’s not fixed, we’ll be down 3-1.

One thing I’ll say about Dallas: I don’t think Luka and Kyrie are the offensive juggernauts that their reps suggest, but they have gelled well enough to make the extra pass and use the role players they have on the floor. If they keep doing that, they’ll beat us if our offensive process is stuck in the mud like it was tonight.

Another one: we were more concerned with keeping turnovers low than with running quality offense. I would like to see that Dallas defense tested when the ball moves more and earlier, they gotta make the right rotations AND they gotta keep Zu, Mann and Russ off the boards. It’s a strength we could use a lot more but in order to do so we gotta be willing to play a lot quicker, decisive, trusting every player on the court and hit the offensive glass aggressively