Getty Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks.
The Dallas Mavericks are in a very precarious situation as they head toward the postseason. If they want to maintain their spot in the playoff picture, they’ll need to stay on top of their game, but on Wednesday night, they faltered.
Dallas dropped their game against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night. It was a tightly-contested contest, but in the end, Golden State finished on top. After the game, Warriors star Stephen Curry spoke about how tough it is to play against Luka Doncic.
“I mean, for the most part, we put him on the free throw line too much in the first half. But Luka is interesting,” Curry said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “He’s going to get his numbers because he’s good, first and foremost, but they have a team formed around him that gives him a lot of space, and he’s great at picking and choosing his spots. Whether he’s looking for a shot or putting pressure on you in the paint to kick out to shooters. They made 17 threes off of a lot of his gravity, so you got to live with some of that stuff, and you got to live with him having big numbers because, again, he’s that great, and he has a lot of opportunity.”
In his return to the court, Doncic played well against the Warriors. He finished the game with 30 points, seven rebounds, and 17 assists on 11-of-27 shooting from the field and 2-of-10 shooting from behind the three-point line.
As for Curry, he also played well. He ended the night with 20 points, five rebounds, and 13 assists on 9-of-18 shooting from the floor and 2-of-8 shooting from beyond the three-point arc.
Christian Wood Praises Kyrie Irving
Their loss to the Warriors followed a defeat against the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night. After the game, Mavericks big man Christian Wood spoke about how great Kyrie Irving has been as a teammate.
“Kyrie, he’s an unselfish superstar,” Wood said via the Fanatics View YouTube channel. “He lets the game come to him. He’s been setting a lot of screens for me to get a switch and for me to get the mismatch. Or he will have a big on him for him to get the mismatch, and we kind of went back and forth and tried to figure that out. Like I said, in the fourth quarter, we’re going to need him. We’re gonna trust him to take those shots and shoot those shots. I think his ankle was bothering him a little bit down the stretch, but I believe, over time, he’s going to make those shots in the fourth quarter. I think he leads the league in fourth-quarter points. Pretty sure.”
Kyrie Irving Speaks About Ja Morant
In other news, after their game against the Grizzlies, Irving spoke about Ja Morant, who has been dealing with some off-the-court issues as of late.
“I believe any hardship in life builds character,” Irving said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “When you’re dealing with particular hardships in the public eye, especially with the media being attracted to just keeping up with what we’re doing, or what’s the next kind of grab or story. I don’t want to assume anything about every media member, but that’s just the way it seems for me and my perspective. It’s just [that] there was an overload of judgment on Ja, and there was an overload of judgment on what I had going on. And there’s usually an overload of judgment from the public court of opinion. So, with that working hand in hand, and we’re such a public league, we’re going to deal with situations that may be very difficult to handle for the person going through it.”