We beat the Nuggets and then beat the 76ers by one and everyone gets a little overzealous with their takes. Slow down everyone!

First off it’s great to see Garland and Allen playing healthy. I’m glad everyone is reminded of how effective and clutch Allen is. His game doesn’t stuff the stat box, but he gets key rebounds, gets key dunks, and fights on every possession. He’s really valuable.

To the point of this post though, yesterday’s game would have been a blow out with Donovan Mitchell. The best thing about Donovan’s game is he can just go get a damn bucket when everything slows down and defenses get really physical. Darius Garland, who is a treasure of a player and everyone adores to watch him because he’s so damn cool, struggles with this. He kind of always has. He gets beat up, he can’t get the ball back with any space. Last night we got bailed out by him shooting a really nice, ugly, Hail Mary 3 and the giant cajones of Craig Porter Jr. Without those two plays we lose. With Donovan Mitchell in that game, we have someone who’s going to create space for a clutch 3 or get a clutch foul call and keep our scoring up. Please stop looking for reasons to be against this guy who we’ve given MVP chants for the last year. He’s a walking bucket, he’s committed on defense, and he supports the team too. Donovan Mitchell will be critical in playoff basketball for this reason too - playoff basketball is half court scoring, defense and the ability to go get a damn bucket when you need it. Donovan Mitchell last year had the 37th highest effective FG%. Doesn’t sound amazing right? The only guards with volume better than him were Steph, Halliburton and Kyrie. Same goes for TS% - guards in his range are Steph, Halli, Kyrie, SGA and Lillard. It’s not as pretty to have a guy who just goes and gets efficient buckets but it’s so valuable. By the way, who got the game winning bucket in game 1?

These are great guys. Great personalities, great players. Let’s celebrate that without tearing anyone down. And criticize too in a healthy way - Evan Mobley can’t be going 2/8 on post plays for example. He’s immediately stepped up that part of his game this season and his efficiency is going way up! Awesome!

I was at game 1 this year. DM’s favorite moment last year in the whole season in an interview was Isaac Okoro’s game winning shot. The guy scored 71 and that’s his favorite moment. He’s with us (at least for now) and he’s part of this team. He’s an important key player who arguably should have been 1st team all nba last year.

We have already had so many fun moments this year. It is extremely impressive we’re 8-6 with injuries alllll the time. Let’s be patient about that, let our guys come back healthy and supported. It’s looking like 1-10 on our roster are really solid. We love Max Strus, Levert has been balling, Okoro has had great energy and we’re so excited about Craig Porter Jr! George Niang has started shooting better!

Let’s keep the energy high, keep the support high and LET EM KNOW. We can easily be the best fans in the NBA. Let’s get this dub against the Heat tonight!