SACRAMENTO – Two games into his Mavericks’ life, Kyrie Irving has never had to worry about playing from behind.
He knows it won’t always be that easy, but it’s a trend he could get used to.
The Mavericks jumped on the Sacramento Kings Friday night, rolling up 45 first-quarter points and rolling to a 122-114 victory at Golden 1 Center.
The Kings never led and trailed by 24 points in the second quarter. It was similar to Wednesday night in Los Angeles when the Mavericks were ahead all the way against the Clippers. Even without Luka Doncic for another game, the Mavericks were in control throughout.
Having two wire-to-wire wins in a row to start Irving’s tenure with the Mavericks might not sound all that crazy.
But the Mavericks had just one wire-to-wire win this season before this trip began.
The Mavericks went to 3-1 on this five-game trip after losing the opener at Golden State. The three wins all game without Luka Dončić, who seems likely to return Saturday in the Mavs-Kings rematch.
Did we mention the ball movement? The Mavericks’ 34 assists were easily a season-best (31 previously, done twice). Jason Kidd said it was easy to pinpoint why the Mavericks are prospering early in games.
“The ball movement has energy,” Kidd said. “We draw up a play for someone, most of the time that person doesn’t get the shot, but they turn it down and turn it into (ball) movement. Since the Golden State game, we’ve been moving a little more, body-wise. I think we had 23 assists at halftime, that’s pretty good for us.”
Irving finished with 25 points and 10 assists to lead seven Mavericks in double figures. Josh Green had 17 points and seven assists. The Mavericks’ assist total was a clear sign of the unselfish play that Irving has fostered in his first two games since arriving in the blockbuster trade with Brooklyn.
The teams will have a rematch Saturday at 9 p.m. with Luka optimistic that he will play. So what happens with the superstar point guards working together for the first time? And the possiblity of Irving and Doncic running the pick-and-roll together is intriguing.
“I’m excited to see what that looks like with Luka out there,” Irving said. “Just relieve the pressure of just having one primary ballhandler. So all the plays will have multiple options because you got guys that can make decisions with the ball or without outside of Luka.
“You got to pick your poison (on the pick-and-roll). It’s a dangerous play for any other team to guard. If they switch, then we get what we want. If they try any other scheme – anytime they take their hands off of us and anytime I can get Luka open for a split second – it makes a huge difference.
“Read, react and play natural basketball.”
Green said the impact Irving has had is unmistakable.
“He really is a competitor,” Green said. “Those offensive rebounds at the end of the game. He was on the floor three or four times. To have the name he has and the career he’s had and to be doing that stuff, it just motivates the rest of the team. You can just tell he’s a competitor and it’s good to have that.”
To which Irving said: “I want to earn my respect and make sure those guys know they can always depend on me out there.”
He also said that digging out those three offensive rebounds comes from his passion for boxing.
“Other than basketball, one of my favorite sports is boxing,” he said. “And the footwork I try to work on throughout the summer comes from watching Floyd Mayweather, Sugar Ray (Leonard) – it (basketball) is a combat sport out there so any time you can have an angle or make your opponent do something they don’t want to do – I just see so many connections to it.”
Irving’s ability to get the Mavericks moving early has been impressive. For the second game in a row, the Mavericks had 40-plus points in the opening quarter. This time, they opened up a 45-25 lead. The points were one shy of the franchise record for first-quarter production.
Their lead was as big as 24 points, but the Mavericks figured it would tighten up in the second half and it finally did in the fourth quarter.
They had a stretch when they missed four shots and had four turnovers as the Kings got as close as 107-100. But Reggie Bullock drilled a corner three-pointer with 4:32 to go to push it back to 10 points. Moments later, Irving dug out an offensive rebound and was fouled. His free throws pushed the lead to 12.
The Kings are the highest-scoring team in the NBA at 119 points per game, but they relied on their defense to make their late run. But even with the basket shrinking, the Mavericks persevered. Irving made six free throws in the final 1:11 to deny the Kings any chance of a last-gasp miracle.
They improved to 31-26 while the Kings, one spot ahead of the Mavericks in the Western Conference standings, fell to 31-24.
While the Mavericks and Kings started the night in the top four of the Western Conference, but both coaches have a clear vision that staying there is not going to be as simple as it sounds.
“You can’t run from it,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “Teams got better in the West. But we have to focus on us. There’s nothing else we can do about what happened with other teams (at the trade deadline), except for buckle down and do what we have to do to play these last 28 games at the highest level.”
Jason Kidd agreed. Surveying the West after Phoenix got Kevin Durant, the Mavericks got Irving and the Lakers, Clippers and others also made significant moves.
Life is certainly not going to be any easier.
“A lot of talented players have come West,” Kidd said. “So on paper, there’s a lot of teams that got better. You look at what Sacramento has done, they’re third in the West. They’re tough to beat. It’ll be interesting to see how it shakes out.”
Games like Friday and Saturday certainly will provide clues about how they will.
Twitter: @ESefko
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