Wow

Aloha,

We have had some impressive wins this year but that one was I believe our best game. Luka, was amazing. He was better than I thought he could be this soon after the trade and coming back from injury. And if there was any question if Luka, LeBron and Austin being able to start together, I think we saw the answer. A resounding HELL YES.

I think one can now, say with certainty that our defense is for real. It starts with some innovative games plan that the players execute beautifully. And they just played harder than the Nuggets all night. The coaches designated which Nuggets would have to beat us and effectively defended the others

While Luka got the game ball, if there was defensive game ball I would give it to Rui. Now don’t get me wrong, the entire team defended at a high level. But JJ singled out Rui, calling him a Warrior and I completely agree. Rui is extremely strong and he was in Jokers shirt all night. He is really hard to move. It’s kind of strange to me that some people still don’t realize how much he has improved defensively. I see it and the coaches point it out all the time but for some reason he doesn’t get the credit he’s earned.

Luka and Austin are two others that don’t get enough credit on the defensive end. Doe pointed out that Luka led the Mav’s in steals the years he played with him. He had 4 tonight. And Austin has elevated his defense as well. He’s been an integral part of that number 1 defense the last month.

Offensively I think we could be perhaps a top offensive team as well. Luka had 30, while Lebron, Austin and Rui all had 20+ Doe, Vando and Gabe didn’t contribute much offense but they will and their defense made a huge difference. Vando had the Joker visibly irritated.

I am liking JJ’s rotations. There seems to always be scorers and defenders on the court at the same time.

The Rockets lost so we are back at the 4th seed. And we are only 2 games back in the loss column from the 2nd seed. We have several tough games coming up but they are at home. If we continue to play this hard and execute we will win a lot of games.