Should Mavericks be involved about Doncic-Irving pairing?

So far, the Luka Doncic-Kyrie Irving pairing hasn’t produced the outcomes the Dallas Mavericks hoped it will.

Dallas is 1-4 within the 5 video games that the All-Star duo has performed collectively, with the lone win coming towards a San Antonio Spurs squad that was within the midst of a 16-game dropping streak. 

Then, Tuesday evening introduced one other low level within the early partnership, because the Mavericks fell 124-122 to an Indiana Pacers squad that entered the sport with a 27-35 report.

Doncic put up a robust offensive exhibiting on his twenty fourth birthday, scoring 38 factors on 14-for-25 capturing from the sector. Irving, in the meantime, struggled, scoring simply 16 factors on 7-for-18 capturing. 

Yet, it was Irving’s quantity that was referred to as to take the ultimate shot in Tuesday’s sport. He took a 25-foot step-back 3-pointer that might have received the sport, however got here up brief. 

Shannon Sharpe stated he was a bit stunned that Mavericks coach Jason Kidd picked Irving to take the massive shot, although he understood why he made that alternative. 

“It tells me that J-Kidd trusted him and knows that Kyrie can make those shots,” Sharpe stated on Wednesday’s “Undisputed.” He struggled all sport lengthy, so I’m a bit stunned that they determined to place the ball in his fingers and Luka had it going. 

“But we’ve seen it before. On Saturday night, Jayson Tatum struggled for basically the entire game [against the 76ers] and when the [Celtics] needed to make a shot, the coach said, ‘OK, we’ll run this set and get the ball to JT and JT, do what you do.’ He knocked the shot down.”

Skip Bayless noticed the scenario otherwise. He seen that Tuesday’s sport is a part of a continued pattern thus far within the early phases of the Doncic-Irving tandem. 

“They have now played five games together and in the fourth quarter of those five games, Kyrie’s taken 41 total shots in the fourth quarter and the one overtime they’ve played. Luka’s taken 13 shots in all of those fourth quarters and that one overtime,” Bayless stated. “Forty-one shots to 14. On Tuesday night, it was eight shots for Kyrie to only three for Luka in the fourth quarter.”

Bayless additionally disputed Sharpe’s declare that the scenario with the Mavericks is much like the one with the Celtics as a result of he believes everybody in Boston views Tatum because the No. 1 man, so it is comprehensible why he took the game-winning shot towards Philadelphia. 

“I have come to respect [Doncic] greatly for his genius of scoring the basketball in the paint and I now officially feel sorry for Luka Doncic,” Bayless stated. “His coach, J-Kidd, basically said, ‘Give me Kyrie, and in the clutch and down the stretch with games on the line, I want the ball in Kyrie’s hands.'”

Both Sharpe and Bayless agreed on one factor: Things aren’t trying too promising for the Mavericks, who fell to 32-31 and now maintain the seventh seed within the West following Tuesday’s loss. 

“[Kyrie’s] putting a lot pressure on himself,” Sharpe stated. “You know that any time you make a trade, especially a guy of Kyrie’s caliber, you know what comes along with that. There’s a lot of pressure. There’s a lot of expectations. Basically, you’re a hired gun, a hired mercenary. You’re brought to deliver something. Right now, it’s not going according to plan.”

More NBA protection from FOX Sports:

---

---