GAME 58: DAL (31-27) @ SAC (32-24) | Dallas lost 133-128 in OT

[sefant]

I mean we can complain all we want about benching Wood, Luka gave this one away. I counted 3 crucial turnovers that directly let the Kings win. Then he takes probably the most difficult 3 in the world for no reason at the end of OT.

ye his overall boxscore stats look good. But his TO were certainly momentum killing moments in a TIGHT game on a b2b. The Dan legacy rant/post about Luka would been fitting here. He didn't really have many transition problems, unless i haven't been noticing them. Tho that was a step in the right direction. But Luka has ways to go to be a complete MVP with MVP impact every night. You noticed in the first quarter that he is probably not ready for tonight. Lots of 3's. Trouble getting by people and towards the rim. The hallmarks of a "weaker" Luka game. By the 4th quarter/OT he was tired.

I thought his defense was a mixed bag too. He had better games already. Have to improve. Few missed rotations, that people would kill Wood for. But i also give him a break with his injury. He looked a litte slow post injury. He looked like the guy that played yesterday. Not the guy that was "rested".

That counted for the rest of the team as well. They all looked a little flat on a 2nd night of a b2b, and 3 games in 4 nights on a roadtrip.

  the only guy who didn't miss a beat on a 2nd night of a b2b.

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If you wanna be overly harsh towards Hardy/Pinson. Their stretches lost the game. Hindsight is obviously 20/20. And there was also enough opportunities to still win the game. But i also had a bad feeling about this 25 min into the game. When i saw Pinson subbed into the game in the 1st quarter.

Wright -29 on/off
Wood -26 on/off
Pinson -25 on/off
Hardy +11 on/off

the last 4 games




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Was this also the Tim "addition by subtraction" legacy game. Aka a little underrated what Tim is doing on defense this year.

Tim yesterday

on DefRtg 97.0
off DefRtg 131.2

on OffRtg 127.3
off DefRtg 113.2

He is probably the 3rd wing/guard defender on the roster after Green/Bullock at times. As long as Kleber isn't back. As long as Kidd is largly ignoring Frank, maybe Morris too.

Maybe i am bit too heavily influenced by being a number + advanced stats guy. But also my eyetest is telling me Tim has improved on defense compared to previous seasons. He is not the total liability anymore of previous seasons.

Last 4 games. The defense is

- 7.1 better with Kyrie on the floor
- 6.7 pts better with Green on the floor
- 5.2 pts better with Tim on the floor