The Dallas Mavericks seemed to be on course for a comfortable win on Sunday when they went up by 27 points in the 2nd quarter on the Los Angeles Lakers.
What followed, though, was an epic collapse, and their misery was completed when Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic combined for a horrific turnover in the closing stages. After that brutal 111-108 loss, Irving explained what went wrong in that play.
1) Miscommunication between Kyrie & Luka during most important play of game
2) Kyrie signals to Luka after the turnover he was expecting something different
3) Jarred Vanderbilt is hell pic.twitter.com/dyKdvkxBsE
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) February 26, 2023
“I thought Luka needed a little bit more room, so I threw it towards the backcourt,” Kyrie said. “Because I thought Jarred Vanderbilt did a great job denying him. So I thought he was just going to let it bounce like twice and then go grab it. But once I saw him trying to save it from halfcourt, I looked at him maybe like a minute later and was like, ‘You know you go backcourt.’ and he’s like, ‘Ah man, it’s my fault.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s all good.'”
This was the second time this month that these two got it horribly wrong late in the game. It will take a while for them to be completely in sync with each other, but the Mavericks cannot afford too many missteps the rest of the way. They are just 2 games ahead of the 11th-placed Portland Trail Blazers and all it takes is a couple of losses to suddenly find yourself fighting for a playoff berth.
They are also 1-3 now when both their stars play, with the only win in that time coming against the lowly San Antonio Spurs, which is slightly concerning. Saying all that though, it is extremely unlikely that they miss the playoffs.
Kenny Smith Believes Kyrie Irving Can Succeed With Luka Doncic
There had been some concerns regarding how the two stars would fit together, and while the team hasn’t had a lot of success in this short amount of time, the two of them are playing just fine, except for the occasional late-game blunder. Kenny Smith is confident that Kyrie will succeed with Luka, as he has past experience playing alongside a ball-dominant player in LeBron James.
Zach Lowe is also a believer in this pairing as he stated that they could turn the Mavericks’ offense into a more diverse and borderline unguardable machine. There certainly have been some glimpses of that, but they need to figure out a way to keep it up for the entire game in order to have success.
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