Kyrie Irving with 6 assists. That's a great stat for him and for the team. Mavs rarely lose when he makes 6+ assists.
I particularly liked this play by him:
https://youtu.be/YTz19IS94BQ?t=15
Switch and run by PJ and Kyrie finds him. Such plays could be more exploited. With Harden on PJ. Make a switch to get Harden on PJ, and then for Harden to defend PJ in the paint. PJ has great size on Harden, can dunk, and has a great floater, semi-hook shot too.
Later on, Kyrie was FORCING his offence a bit. He wasn't on. He was taking bad shots. Trying to get himself going. That is tricky for every player. To let the game come to him, but TO ALSO BE ASSERTIVE AND PROACTIVE. Kyrie has that balance in the fourth quarter when things matter. And he struggles with that at the early stages of games. And he's been playing like that for a while. Most games during the season Kyrie would not exert himself much in the first two quarters. He would stroll along. Seeking neither to score nor to assist. And that is now hard to change for him.
Those things he must work on in every game of the season so that he would end up struggling less with that in the playoffs. And instead of working on that during the regular season, Kyrie had the opposite approach. He liked that about himself. He liked the fact that he gets TURNED ON in the fourth quarter. But that is not good. He should apply himself vigorously at all times. And he should work on that. A series can be lost because of two games with bad team starts. And Kyrie is a major player.
So Kyrie did not have a bad start. He did have that early assist. And he scored early too. But later on he struggled. I think his problem could be that he doesn't have a clear signature or go-to move that he can rely on very, very consistently. Kyrie does everything well, but when he is on. When he is not on, he is just not on. I think his go-to move would have to be his mid-range jump shot. Little pick and roll or just dribble to find that mid-range sweet spot. But even that is not very consistent with him. He sometimes has it on and sometimes he doesn't. And the same is true with his three pointers.
Recently, others and he himself talked about his transition three-pointer as being one of his favourite shots. But that is, again, a weird shot. It cannot be a go-to move. He must find himself in a transition situation to be able to take that shot. He cannot rely on it to get himself going consistently.