Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Portland Trail Blazers at home by a final score of 126-97 on Wednesday. Irving and Luka Doncic led the charge for Dallas, with Doncic scoring 41 points and Irving finishing with 29 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and two steals.
It was an impressive effort for the Mavs following their defeat against the Utah Jazz on Monday in Irving's return from injury. Irving addressed returning from his heel injury following Wednesday's victory.
“24 days. 24 days, man. That's a long amount of time in the NBA season to miss games, especially when I felt like I was in a great rhythm before that happened,” Irving said. “I played one time – one pickup game – and then two days later I was in an NBA game. I just had to trust the hard work that I put in in the summertime and the work I put in day-to-day and let the results speak for themselves.
“Tonight was one of those games where I felt like I had to inject myself into the rhythm and kind of force myself to get up-and-down, get a good sweat going and be able to exemplify the pace that we should be playing at. I feel like we did that.”
Kyrie Irving ready to help Mavs win
Sometimes, fans may overlook just how much injuries impact players in their everyday lives. Irving further discussed his previous injury and dropped an eye-opening admission about his recovery.
“I felt great. My foot was feeling great. Again, I couldn't even get two socks on to put in my shoes for about two-and-a-half weeks and it was just achy walking around, carrying my kids, and you realize how much you're on your feet day-to-day. There isn't really a lot of ample time to rest and recover.
“I tried to find my balance and I think that's what took me so long to come back to playing, is that I was just pushing it and then in the weight room, doing things to put my body in a better position, I had one or two setbacks where – there was one time where I even hit my heel when I was doing the lift bar in the weight room and that achy-ness comes back. But tonight was one of those nights where I wasn't thinking about it. Mentally, I felt great from the start, and you saw the results, so I want to continue to build on my consistency, find my rhythm, continue to be aggressive, and do the right things for our team to win.”
The Mavs are certainly happy to have their superstar guard back and playing alongside Luka Doncic. The Mavs will battle the Blazers once again in a rematch on Friday night, as Dallas looks to add another victory to the win column.
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