First the positives for D’Angelo Russell.
He was decisive with the ball, slicing aggressively into the lane for some runners and floaters and dropping a couple of slick dimes, including a deft bounce pass to Jarrett Allen in the lane for a powerful dunk and a no-look feed to a cutting Caris LeVert along the baseline for another flush.
He struggled, however, with his shot. Russell was just 1-for-4 from 3-point range and 4-for-12 overall, as his touch just wasn’t there Wednesday night.
Russell is a good enough scorer that it can be written off as a bad night.
More encouraging, though, was that he was looking for open teammates and openings to create for himself and took them without hesitation.
He also played turnover-free, a huge win for a player who has had a tendency to be loose with the orange over his first three seasons.
Defensively, he’ll never remind anyone of Tony Allen, but his effort was solid, even if his positioning was a bit off at times — giving too much space to shooters at times and overcommitting to shooters and getting blown by a couple of other possessions.