For the first time in these playoffs, Dallas has lost two straight after falling to the Celtics 105-98 in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
Boston takes a 2-0 series lead as the series shifts to Dallas for Games 3 and 4, with Game 3 being on Wednesday night.
Dallas got a big performance by the best player, Luka Doncic, who had a triple-double with a game-high 32 points to go along with 11 rebounds and 11 assists, but they didn’t get enough from his co-star Kyrie Irving. The eight-time All-Star had 16 points on 7/18 shooting from the floor and six assists.
After averaging 27 points per contest on 49% shooting in the conference finals, Irving is averaging only 14 points per game on 35% shooting in the first two games of this series. Irving has had good looks, but his shots are not falling.
However, like all great scorers, Irving believes his shots will start falling.
“Yeah, that’s the confidence that I have in myself,” Irving said about making shots. “A lot of shots were hitting the back rim. That could piss you off as a competitor, but it’s all part of the game of basketball. And you have to accept the ups and downs of this. That’s, I would say, the toughest challenge when you’re in a series. You want to play extremely well, especially when you’re playing in a Finals. A little disappointed in myself not being able to convert a lot more on my opportunities that I have in the lane. Obviously, I’m going against Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown a few times, but I feel like I have the upper edge on certain possessions where I’ve just got to convert.”
Irving, who lost in Boston for the 12th straight time, was 5/10 from the field in the first half but 2/8 the rest of the way. According to Mavs head coach Jason Kidd, it’s a make-or-miss league, and Irving’s shots just did not fall.
“He had great looks,” Kidd said. “They just didn’t go down. That’s just the game of basketball. Sometimes, you make them. Sometimes you don’t. You continue to keep playing. He had some good looks that just didn’t go down for him tonight.”
Boston has held serve and handled their business at home, and Irving says the Mavs have to do the same in Dallas.
“You want to take advantage of playing in front of your home crowd, feeling confident, and being able to play in a familiar place,” Irving said. “And like I said, they handled what they were supposed to do, first two games, and now it’s our job to go home and handle our business. But you’ve got to give them credit. They kept competing. We kept competing. We’ve just got to stay together in some of the tough times throughout the game where it could be a four-point lead on them or four-point lead that we have. We just have to keep competing, and I think we’ll be in a better place.”
Boston looks tough to beat right now, but there could be some uncertainty with Kristaps Porzingis, who left late in the game with an apparent leg injury, so we’ll see how that plays out.
This game was very winnable for Dallas, but they did not protect the ball(15 turnovers) or make free throws(16/24). For the Mavericks to win this series, Doncic and Irving have to be at their best, and we’ll see if they will do that in Dallas.
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