Getty Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks.
The Dallas Mavericks have not played up to par this season. After making a trip to the Western Conference Finals last year, they’ve hovered around the .500 mark for the majority of this season, and despite their trade deadline deal for Kyrie Irving, things haven’t improved much.
On Friday night, they dropped an embarrassing game to the Charlotte Hornets, who were without multiple key players. After the game, head coach Jason Kidd sent a strong message on Luka Doncic and Irving, noting that their shots just didn’t go down.
“When you look at our two guys [Doncic and Irving], I think they were 3-for-17 from three,” Kidd said via the Fanatics View YouTube channel. “Got great looks, just didn’t go down. And that’s kind of been the season for us in that sense. We’re getting great looks, they’re just not going down, and our opponent, they’re getting good looks, and they’re making them. So, understand we’ve got eight games left, and we’re still in control of this. But our effort has to be a little bit better from the start.”
Doncic wasn’t very efficient from three-point range, but he still put up solid stats against the Hornets. He ended the night with 34 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists on 12-of-23 shooting from the field and 2-of-9 shooting from behind the three-point line.
As for Irving, he simply had a rough shooting night in general. He finished the game with 18 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists on 6-of-16 shooting from the field and 1-of-8 shooting from beyond the three-point arc.
Luka Doncic Delivers Concerning Mavs Comments
After the game, Doncic was extremely annoyed, voicing his frustrations with how the Mavericks have been playing as of late.
“This season hasn’t been what we thought it was going to be. But we still got time to make up [for it],” Doncic said via the Fanatics View YouTube channel.
He also noted that he personally hasn’t been having fun on the court lately.
“It’s really frustrating,” Doncic said. “I think you can see it with me on the court. Sometimes, I don’t feel it’s me. Just being out there. I used to have [a lot of] fun. Smiling on the court. But it’s just been so frustrating. For a lot of reasons, not just basketball.”
Kyrie Irving Sounds Off on Luka Doncic
Meanwhile, Irving spoke about how the blame needs to be shared, and everything shouldn’t be placed on him and Doncic.
“I mean, not really. I didn’t imagine [this],” Irving said via the Fanatics View YouTube channel. “I expect to win every ball game that I play. So, that’s the attitude I go on with. But the reality is what it in. We are 3-7. But again, it’s a team basketball game. As much as people want to put it on me and Luka, it’s a team basketball game, and we talk about that in a locker room. Everyone loves to point fingers at what we’re doing, but it’s a team-aspect game. And I feel like when we focus on our team aspect, that’s when we get clear answers. But when we focus on two guys and what our numbers are and whether we can play better, it limits all the other guys and their capabilities in that locker room, and I don’t want to do that. I believe in each one of those guys. And when I was coming here, I knew that giving up Dorian Finney-Smith or giving up Spencer [Dinwiddie], that was gonna be a change to any lineup that they had going o. Different minutes. Guys get in and out of the lineup. I haven’t necessarily been as healthy as I would like to be at this point in the season. Other guys haven’t been as healthy. e and Luka as well, more importantly. But again, there’s no time for excuses. We just got to lace them up and get ready.”
An important aspect to games at this level, especially in the NBA, is that a team must accumulate more points than their opponents.
For example, if Dallas ends the game with 100 points and Charlotte scores 99 points, the victory will go to Dallas. That’s why teams win and lose. It is determined by scoring.