Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks have a lot to figure out. The rotations and schemes have not been serving this squad quite right against the Boston Celtics. Luka Doncic has been creating a lot of his shots off of broken plays while Kyrie Irving cannot get most of the space he needs to get a shot off because of defenders like Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Jrue Holiday. A lot of this might be a point of concern for most players in the NBA Finals. But, one of them does not seem too stressed about being down two to nothing.
Kyrie Irving has gotten a lot more calm throughout his career. A lot of it has to do with his off-court activities and it eventually translates to his demeanor while playing. At times, the Celtics faithful got to him in this NBA Finals series. But, the Mavericks star may have already cleansed his mind of all the negativity he went through at TD Garden. He even tweeted a message to the team's faithful.
Kyrie Irving stresses that the Mavericks and their fans should not be in a state of panic. He supposes that being paranoid is not quite the best during the NBA Finals. After all, he has been quite a few times already and that experience got built up into veteran wisdom. Instead, the master of handles urges them to practice the opposite of paranoia which is pronoia. He wants them to be positive despite the woes that Jason Kidd's squad has been experiencing against the Celtics.
Mavericks star struggles in the NBA Finals vs. the Celtics
There have been points of concern regarding Irving's performance. For one, he did not look like his normal second-option self in the first two games. Even when he got some separation from Jrue Holiday, and Derrick White, the shots were still not falling. In the end, he had to defer a huge chunk of the offensive load to Luka Doncic. This might not have been the best idea given that their star player has been nursing a lot of pain. Luka Doncic was even listed as questionable at one point prior to Game 2.
To put it into perspective, no one else except Doncic has scored more than 20 points for the Mavericks. Irving, who is supposedly the acquisition who would have solved these issues, has not been of much help. Despite being on the floor for an average of 39 minutes, he has only managed to sink 35.1% of his shots from all three levels of scoring. This has gotten him a horrid average of 14 points in this NBA Finals series.
The fact that he also commits 2.5 turnovers on a nightly basis also prevents the Mavericks from gaining any sort of offensive momentum. But, there are still some bright spots in his game. Irving has managed to drop four assists on average to create opportunities for others when his shot is not falling. His 2.5 rebounds also help them close out defensive sets. There is still a lot to be desired for someone of his caliber. He needs to step up once the NBA Finals heads back to the Mavericks' home floor.
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