The Dallas Mavericks were defeated by the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals on Tuesday. Oklahoma City earned a 117-95 victory, but Mavericks star Kyrie Irving is still confident in Dallas. Irving wasted no time after the loss, as he immediately shared an uplifting message on X (formerly Twitter).
“Tribe, stay together no matter what,” Irving wrote.
Luka Doncic was listed as probable with a sprained right knee before being made available ahead of the game. He played throughout Tuesday's contest but was clearly dealing with pain. He fell to the floor in a scary moment during the game as well, which led to more pain for the Mavs star.
Doncic had no interest in discussing the injury after the loss, however.
“Who cares? We lost,” Doncic said. “We just gotta move on to the next one. I gotta be better, we gotta be better… We gotta focus. They're a great team, great defensive team, great offensive team. So it's not going to be easy at all. We gotta play very good basketball and focused basketball for 48 minutes.”
Thunder defeat Mavericks
Oklahoma City utilized an impressive brand of defense to contain the Mavericks. Dallas shot just 39.3 percent from the field and 34.3 percent from beyond the arc.
Kyrie Irving led the Mavs with 20 points on 50 percent field goal and 75 percent three-point shooting. Doncic added 19 points, but was incredibly inefficient with his shot (more on that later).
Daniel Gafford performed well in the loss. He scored 16 points and recorded 11 rebounds. Gafford did all he could on the defensive end of the floor, finishing with five blocks.
In the end, the Thunder did enough on both sides of the ball to earn a comfortable victory.
Luka Doncic was not himself in Game 1
Again, Doncic scored 19 points. However, it certainly was not an efficient performance for the Mavs' MVP finalist.
He went 6-19 (31.6 percent) from the field. Doncic has struggled with his three-point shot throughout the playoffs so far, something that did not change on Tuesday night. Luka connected on just one of his eight three-point attempts (12.5 percent) in the defeat.
He still managed to finish the game with six rebounds and nine assists. Anyone who watched the game could tell you that Doncic did not look like himself throughout the affair, however.
He was clearly dealing with a lot of pain. The Mavericks need Doncic without question moving forward. But if he continues to endure offensive frustrations, Dallas will need Kyrie Irving to be far more aggressive from an offensive standpoint.
Irving took just 14 shots from the field and only four three-point attempts. As aforementioned, he found the bottom of the net on three of those long-range attempts.
There is no question that Doncic is one of the best players in the NBA. In fact, some may even say he has an argument to be called the best player in the league right now. Others may rank him as low as a top 10 player. Either way, Luka Doncic is a superstar.
But even the best players may struggle while battling an injury. The Mavericks need Doncic to perform at a higher level, but Kyrie Irving, who is also a superstar without question, is going to need to lead the way against the Thunder.
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