Kyrie Irving’s Big Night Not Enough as Spiraling Mavs Fall to Hawks in OT

The Dallas Mavericks lost their seventh game in eight tries on Sunday night in a second night of a back-to-back against the Atlanta Hawks. At this point, it would take a miracle for Dallas to make the postseason.

Dalton Trigg | Apr 2, 2023

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The end is near for the Dallas Mavericks, but that might be a good thing based on their level of play since February.

With their postseason hopes already on life support, the Mavs dropped yet another important game on Sunday night to the Atlanta Hawks while being on the second night of a back-to-back, 132-130 in overtime.

Down by one with 0.4 seconds remaining in regulation, JaVale McGee went to the free-line with a chance to win the game but split the pair to send the game into overtime. With 1.8 left in overtime, Luka Doncic missed a game-winning 3-point attempt at the buzzer.

As has been the case for the last few months, and really the entire season, lack of defense was the biggest reason for the Mavs suffering their seventh loss in eight games. Less than 24 hours after giving up 76 points to the Miami Heat in the first half of Saturday’s game, the Mavs gave up 70 to the Hawks in the first half on Sunday.

Kyrie Irving led the way for Dallas, scoring 41 points and playing big minutes after doing the same in Miami the night before. Unfortunately for the Mavs, their star’s offensive brilliance wasn’t enough to offset their lackluster team defense. Irving shot 16-27 from the field, grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists.

Doncic finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and seven assists while shooting 8-21 from the field and 3-12 from deep.

Turnovers and free-throw shooting played a big roles in Sunday’s loss, as Dallas coughed the ball up 14 times, which led to 23 points for Atlanta. Dallas also shot just 22-32 from the charity stripe. In a two-point loss, 10 misses on freebies hurts.

With the loss, the Mavs have secured their first losing season since Doncic’s rookie year in 2018-19. If there is a silver lining for the Mavs, it’s that they are in position to keep their 2023 first-round pick that would convey to the New York Knicks if it falls out of the top 10.

Next up, the Mavs fly back to Dallas to finish off their 2022-23 campaign with three consecutive home games, starting with the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.

Stay tuned for more postgame coverage at DallasBasketball.com in the coming days.

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Published Apr 2, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.