'No Excuses' For Mavs Star Kyrie Irving: 'Chop Wood, Carry Water'

Though he's fighting through a foot injury, Kyrie Irving is doing everything he can to help his teammates if he's able to suite up.
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When it comes to must-win situations, this past weekend ranked highly for the Dallas Mavericks

But ... they dropped the ball in embarrassing fashion.

In two favorable matchups against the Charlotte Hornets, who hold the league's fourth-worst record, the Mavericks failed to land in the win column, including Sunday's most recent 110-104 loss on the road. 

Losers of four straight games and now finding themselves on the outside looking in of the play-in tournament, Dallas has seven games remaining to get back on track and stamp their ticket to at least a small taste of the postseason. 

One thing hindering the Mavs as of late has been injuries to both Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. For Irving, he's been battling a foot injury that he re-aggravated on last week against the Memphis Grizzlies, which Irving said he's trying his best to manage.

"It's definitely making or missing shots, but like I said, kind of like a week ago, just trying my best to manage this [foot injury] and there's a lot of desperation basketball that needs to be played down the stretch, especially where we are in the season and also in the standings," Irving said of his recent struggles.

In the two matchups with the Hornets, Irving struggled shooting from the field, hitting just 11-of-31 attempts from the floor and 3-of-14 from 3-point range. But, if he's out there, Irving says 'there's no excuses.'

"I would love to just be one hundred percent healthy and just being able to just play and flow in the game. But, I'm out there, so there's no excuses," Irving said. "I just got to strap up my bootstraps and beat everything that I can for my teammates and coaching staff." 

Despite losing a fourth consecutive game and battling his foot injury, Irving tries to stay positive and 'keep moving forward' for his team to close out the regular season strong.

"I don't want to get too cliche here, but just gotta keep on moving forward and keep on progressing. Chop wood, carry water — same thing."

The wood pile is getting smaller by the day, and the water well is getting dangerously close to running dry for the Mavericks.


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Michael Mulford
MICHAEL MULFORD

Michael Mulford is a writer/editor for Dallas Basketball, where he extensively covers the Dallas Mavericks. He also covers the Chicago Bulls as the Managing Editor for Bulls Wire of USA Today Sports Media Group. Mulford grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and graduated from the University of North Texas in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Recreation, Event, and Sports Management. He began his pursuit of sports writing in 2017 with Dallas Sports Fanatic, where he covered the Mavericks’ G League affiliate, Texas Legends. He then became the Managing Editor of Dallas Sports Fanatic just one year later and has covered the Mavericks as a credentialed media member since 2018, including covering numerous playoff games between 2021-22 and covering the team at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas in 2019. In his time covering the Mavericks, Mulford has conducted numerous interviews for exclusive stories including with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, former Maverick and current VP of Basketball Ops Michael Finley, former Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson, and more. You can follow and interact with Mulford on Twitter at @TheMulf.