Just when you thought you'd seen everything that Kyrie Irving could do on the court, he came up with another that blew people's minds away. Of course, we are talking about the game-winning shot he drained in the face of Denver Nuggets star big man Nikola Jokic to give the Dallas Mavericks the 107-105 win at home over the defending NBA champions.
Mavericks star Kyrie Irving sounds off on unreal game-winner against the Nuggets
After the game, the Mavericks' incredibly skilled guard talked about his thinking and the process that led to the memorable shot that will be talked about for days and weeks to come. His eyes must have lit up the moment he saw that Jokic committed that hard to him defensively. Seeing the mismatch on the perimeter, Irving quickly took advantage of it.
“Majority of it's instinctual and comes from preparation for hours again that no one sees. So I saw Jokic taking away my pull up going left,” Irving said following the Mavericks' huge victory (h/t Grant Afseth of DallasBasketball.com).
“I had hit a few, or I had hit one or two tonight. So I knew he was gonna come up, but I didn't know he was gonna commit like that. He was forcing me inside the 3-point line and as soon as I felt him kind of behind me, I was like, ‘Oh, I have my left hand. It's wide open, so why not go to it?”
Irving saved the day for the Mavericks, who are back to their winning ways after taking a stumble on the road last Thursday in a 126-119 road loss at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The one-time NBA champion was not shooting well from the field heading into that final possession, but the Mavericks surely had all the trust in him to make evade Denver's defense and make the all-important bucket. Irving finished the game with 24 points on 9-for-23 shooting from the field and 4-for-11 from behind the arc along with nine assists and seven rebounds plus three steals in 40 minutes of work on the floor.
Winners in five of their last six outings, Irving and the Mavericks will head to San Antonio next to face the San Antonio Spurs this coming Tuesday.
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