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After the Dallas Mavericks failed to steal a win on the road in Atlanta, the Hawks’ Trae Young shed light on his team’s strategy to beat the Mavs: shut down everybody but stars Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic.
“We knew that they like to get up a lot of threes,” Young told Bally Sports Southeast’s Lauren Jbara in an on-court interview after the game. “So, we kind of wanted to pressure them and make them get into the paint. I mean, Ky still did what he does and Luka was still getting everyone involved. But that’s what great players do; we gotta eliminate the others. I thought we did a great job on the shooters, like Tim Hardaway Jr. and Reggie Bullock and those guys. So I think we did a good job of eliminating the others around those two, and I think that’s why we got the win.”
Young scored 24 points, including the final two points of overtime — a pair of free throws with 1.1 seconds left — as the Hawks won 132-130. The loss was Dallas’ seventh in its last eight games. The Mavs now sit a whole game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the final Western Conference Play-In Tournament spot with three games left to play in the regular season.
He dove deeper to discuss his relationship with Doncic, whom the Hawks swapped for him on draft night back in 2018.
“We both just got so much respect and much love for each other,” Young said. “So, we always are hoping for each other’s success unless we’re playing one another.”
Mavs May Shut Down Kyrie Irving & Luka Doncic: Report
With the Mavericks’ road to the postseason looking rocky as ever, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the organization is “seriously considering” shutting down Irving and Doncic.
“I’m told that the organization is seriously considering the possibility of shutting down [Irving and Doncic],” Charania said April 3 on FanDuel TV. “They have a top-10 protected pick. So, being out of the Play-In race, it behooves them not to try and keep their pick, and at that point, you have the flexibility of having that potentially top-10 pick, you have three first-round picks that you can trade this offseason to go get a star, and potentially more players in the marketplace. They’re going to be one of the more active teams.”
Losing would actually benefit the Mavs, considering that if their draft pick doesn’t land in the top 10, then it will be conveyed to the New York Knicks as part of the trade that got them Kristaps Porzingis back in 2019.
Mavericks Urged to Tank Remainder of Letdown Season
The concept of the Mavs tanking has been thrown around quite a bit. On March 27, The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor wrote a piece pitching that Dallas should just call it a season.
“Dallas might’ve made the West finals just a year ago, but now the team has been surpassed by a number of Western contenders,” he wrote. “To make matters worse, Irving could walk out the door as an unrestricted free agent this summer. But even if he stays, he’s got a track record of burning bridges with his previous franchises. What makes Dallas think it’ll be the exception? Especially after this kind of start? With limited ways to bolster the roster, it’s crucial that this year’s pick turns into a real asset. If it moves into the top four, it could be the lifeline the Mavericks need, whether they keep a prized prospect or flip him in a bigger deal.”
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