The NBA world finally got a chance to witness what a Dallas Mavericks led by Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving would look like tonight. After having beat the Sacramento Kings on their home floor last night with just Kyrie manning the helm, the Jordan athlete joined the fray after returning from injury, having missed 4 games.
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Luka teased what the offense would look like with both him and Kyrie out on the floor. Given that they both have high usage rates and are incredibly ball-dominant, the fit between the two is quite intriguing. As expected, there were quite a lot of screens being set by Luka for Kai which led to them trying to take advantages of mismatches.
Both of the superstars ended the game with solid stats, with Irving having dropped 28,7, and 7 while Doncic put up 27 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Josh Green pitched in with 23 points of his own.
Luka Doncic on him taking the game-tying shot instead of Kyrie Irving
With De’Aaron Fox having missed the potential game-winner at the end of regulation, the bout went into overtime. OT was a back-and-forth between Fox and Kyrie Irving as they each scored a majority of their team’s point down the stretch.
After Irving made it a one-point affair with a brilliant fading-to-the-right three, Fox put them up 3 at the charity stripe. The SLOB play with 18 seconds remaining saw Luka Doncic inbound the ball and get the ball right back and take a tough contested deep three over Fox to try to tie it, missing the shot and the leading the game down the foul-game.
The Mavs would lose and make themselves 2-1 in the Kyrie Irving era but not without some promising things having been showcased by the two offensive masterminds.
During his postgame press conference, Luka admitted that he should’ve given the ball up to Kai, claiming he was on a hot streak and him deciding the game would’ve been better.
Luka Doncic felt he should have given the ball back to Kyrie Irving before his step-back 3 in OT:
“It’s my bad. I should have given it back to Kai. For me, it’s still a learning process, but, for sure, I should have given it back to him. He was really hot down the stretch.” pic.twitter.com/nXSm0u8MBm
— Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth) February 12, 2023
With the Mavs still having close to 25 games to figure out the duo and their fit next to one another, it’s safe to say that come Playoff time, the team as a whole will be much more formidable than it is now.
Also read: What Did Kyrie Irving Say Now? A Brief of All the Controversies by New Dallas Mavericks Guard
