Sports

The Dallas Mavericks-Kyrie Irving Experiment Is Closing In On A Horrific Ending

#NBA
by Last Updated
Kyrie Irving looks grim on the bench

Getty Image / Megan Briggs


Hopes were high coming into the season for the Dallas Mavericks. The team made the Western Conference Finals last season, and young superstar Luka Dončić was quite the building block, as he is a guaranteed ticket to an efficient offense.

And, the team played just above .500 ball in the very competitive Western Conference for a few months, not great basketball, but not terrible either, and seemed to be a lock for the postseason. And, in Early February, the Mavericks swung for the fences by acquiring embattled superstar Kyrie Irving.

Irving had quite the time in Brooklyn this year for the Nets. He was suspended before the season started for actions and comments that were deemed anti-Semitic, for which Irving refused to apologize for a time. When he was actually playing basketball, he was pretty solid, averaging 27 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists a game before the trade.

Theoretically, he would be a better version of Jalen Brunson, who the Dallas Mavericks let walk in free agency to the New York Knicks. Brunson and Doncic had played great together last year en route to their Western Conference Finals Appearance.

But, It has gone worse than anyone could ever imagine. Soon after Kyrie’s arrival, the Mavericks were five games over .500, and the question would be where would the team be seeded in the playoffs.

Since, they’ve been horrific, playing at nine games under .500 since they were 31-26 and played themselves fully out of the playoff positions and into the realm of most disappointing teams of all time.

It came to a head Saturday night against the Heat, where the Mavericks lost 129-122. This puts the Mavericks a game back of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the final play-in spot. And, the Thunder own the tiebreaker against the Mavs, putting them effectively two games back with just a week left in the season.

Naturally, Mavericks fans are disappointed in how the season is ending, and Twitter is having a field day with them. The team has lost 7 of the past 8 games, and 9 of 12.

The Dallas Mavericks play a must-win game Sunday against the Atlanta Hawks.