So, after playing 51 of 58 mins do you sit him vs. the Celts or play him? I think he plays because the Celts are wounded so we could get that one. James always says he “knows how to take care of my body.” The two guys who seem to take a lot of hits in games are James and DJJ — maybe they play it up a bit but they seem to go down a lot and get up very slowly. But then, miraculously, live to fight another day.

I think this win propels the team and there’s something about not having Beal and Kawhi that’s making Ty look less of an “like I said” idiot. Vamos a ver.

If you want to see the shit show from both sides.

Just watching Harden and Steph go off tonight in their games is what this league is about.

Kawhi would be wise to find his way back on to the court sooner rather than later.

Zu gave this team several shots in the arm, but you could kind of feel the vibes for the team change when he went coast to coast with that layup. This is Zu’s 4th 20 pt game this season. He had 5 at this point last season so he’s pretty much on target. This squad, at this point in time, is not as good as last year’s squad, and Zu needs to defer less and attack more, draw fouls and just seize the initiative like he did on that coast to coast drive. He’s going to have to be ahead of last season’s pace in scoring for this team to win more games, as I assume Kawhi is going to be out for a bit. Even when Kawhi comes back, I see Zu as a guy who has to score because we don’t have the shooting from the wing that we had last year. Maybe it will develop, but we need Zu to go up with strong hands and pivot moves and draw more contact and go to the line.

Harden – thought he was brilliant in the first half with the way he moved the ball and was economical with his dribbling. Fell into some bad habits in the second half, but hit big shots, and his OT play was high level. He gives you everything he has. If Kawhi Leonard were able to match Harden’s doggedness and intensity, this would be a very different team.

I’ll also give Lue credit for managing both OTs. He forced them to run actions where Bogi did more ball handling and got some better ball movement. The extra time also helped this team get more of a feel of how to play together in an intense situation so there are more data points for the coaching staff to process.

Some other notable things:

• Brook Lopez (after a disastrous first stint) had a very short leash the rest of the game, finishing with only 10 mins played. That’s a good step, but Ty Lue has to take the next step and play some mins with Collins at the small ball #5
• Collins – positive +/- (+17) but still a struggle adjusting to the starting role. Thought he did some good things in the Q3 stint to help LAC keep momentum, but Lue didn’t want him on the floor in Q4/OTs so he’ll still have to work up to it. Still, I’d be patient with him because his mere presence makes the game easier for Harden/Zu/
• Starting unit did a very nice job chasing guys off the 3 pt line. Other than the late Q1/early Q2 stint when Ty messed around w/bad lineups, this was the first time I could say that the opponent didn’t have as many wide open looks from 3.
• Kris Dunn – to use a football analogy, he’s great between the 20 yard lines, but you need someone else once you get the ball into the red zone. Kris played avery good game during most of the regulation. However, you could see late in Q4/OT where Dallas just doubled Harden, tripled Zu, left Dunn open and he wasn’t able to knock down the shot. Batum, too, doesn’t have the legs at his age to be that deadly shooter that we’ve enjoyed watching in an LAC uniform. Lu took Dunn him out for DJJ, which worked out b/c you didn’t need a 3 guard lineup with Bogi and Harden out there. Ultimately, Collins should be that stretch 4 guy that Lue trusts to close games. He gives you better balance. If Lue is going for a 3rd wing shooter, then I think you work one of the kids (Miller, Kobe Sanders, Cam) into that role.

Some good stuff today. Let’s see how this team can improve on this road trip.