Kyrie's 35 points: our 5.9 vs a glowing reference — the night's biggest split

The index verdict from Dallas belongs to Pascal Siakam, not the game's biggest scorer. His near-triple-double — 29 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, with playmaking at 0.876 — tops our board at 7.8, while Cooper Flagg's 43-point, 10-rebound, 6-assist statement settles at 7.6. The reference hands Flagg a 9.0; we say the gap to Siakam is one assist, not a class apart.

The night's sharpest disagreement is Kyrie Irving. 35 points, four assists, zero rebounds and nothing for our defensive component capped his raw production at 0.409 — completeness beats volume on this scale.

Dallas still earned the 125-122 win by our numbers: Flagg and P.J. Washington Jr. (6.4, with a 0.679 defensive showing) carry the glass and the grime. Indiana's Andrew Nembhard earns a perfect playmaking 1.0 for his 12 assists but just 6.4 overall, his rebounding floor at 0.225. The index keeps insisting the whole stat sheet is the story.