Getty Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks.
The Dallas Mavericks have not had the success they hoped for with the pairing of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Despite the talent involved, they just haven’t been able to put things together, and the team isn’t stringing together wins.
On Friday night, they lost a brutal game against the short-handed Charlotte Hornets, who are fully in rebuild mode. After the game, Irving spoke about how everyone needs to focus on the team as a whole rather than just Doncic and himself. However, he also admitted that things haven’t gone as he envisioned them going when he got traded to Dallas.
“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.”
Luka Doncic Sounds Off on Mavericks
Meanwhile, Doncic also expressed his frustrations after the game.
“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 vented about the up-and-down Mavericks season, even noting that he’s simply not having as much fun out there on the floor as he has in past years.
“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.”
Jaden Hardy Praises Kyrie Irving
In other news, Jaden Hardy recently praised Irving, explaining how great he’s been to have as a teammate.
“Since the time he’s been here, he’s helped me a lot,” Hardy said via the Fanatics View YouTube channel. “He’s always in my ear giving me feedback of what he thinks [and] what he sees when I’m out there on the floor. So, that always helps coming from him. And when I was younger, I looked up to him and watched a lot of him, so I tried to take things from his game and add them to mine. So, just having him here with me and him being able to tell me things and just help me help me get better, I’m super grateful for that.”