Before the Dallas Mavericks' game against the Utah Jazz on New Year's Day, Mavs fans were excited. How could they not be? — considering Kyrie Irving was finally going to return after missing 12 games due to an injury.
Unfortunately, things ended sourly for the Mavs as they ended up getting blown out by Utah, 127-90. After the horrible loss, head coach Jason Kidd spoke on the team's high expectations for Irving, considering how the latter just returned from being hurt.
“I thought Kai (Kyrie) was good just to get back into the flow of things,” Kidd said, as per Sports Illustrated's Grant Afseth. “Sometimes, there's a natural letdown when a player comes back from injury. I thought the group kind of was going to now rely on Kai to kind of carry us, but give Utah credit. They came out and hit us in the jaw.”
The Mavs fail to stop Jordan Clarkson and the Jazz
Irving finished the game with 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field, along with nine rebounds and four assists.
It didn't help that Luka Doncic also had a sub-par showing compared to his usual nights. The Slovenian may have had a double-double of 19 points and 14 assists, but he shot the ball poorly from the floor, going 6-of-20 (30%) from the field.
Jaden Hardy managed 17 points off the bench for the Mavs, shooting five triples in the process.
The Mavs were unable to contain Jordan Clarkson and Simone Fontecchio, the Jazz's highest scorers during the game. Clarkson in particular, notched a triple-double for Utah, with 20 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds.
Clarkson's feat ended Utah's triple-double drought, which spans 1,256 regular season games. Prior to the Filipino-American, the last time a Jazz player notched a triple-double was February 13, 2008, courtesy of big man Carlos Boozer.
Kyrie Irving and the Mavs look to regroup and bounce back against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday.
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