Reflecting on last season, Irving celebrated Mavs’ division title

MIAMI – When Kyrie Irving hit the button to start celebrating the Dallas Mavericks winning 50 games and capturing the Southwest Division title on the same night, he harkened back to last season when he and his teammates failed to make the NBA play-in tournament.

In doing a deep dive of last season’s missteps, Irving wrapped up this season’s success in a tiny bow by explaining that this walk to the postseason is both personal and very meaningful to him.

“That was the first time I had dealt with failure at that type of level – at least at my age being 30 and being in the prime of my career,” Irving said. “I was not necessarily as healthy as I would have liked (last season), but I felt like we had a good enough team to at least get into the postseason. When we didn’t, it hurt me in a lot of ways.

“I couldn’t get any redemption, so I turned the page and I was ready for the next chapter, the next phase. It’s about moving on, and it was tough, especially as a competitor. You failed in front of the public eye and you have all these external voices coming at you and telling you who you are and what you’re not going to do and what you’re capable of.”

For Irving, it was a soul-searching journey he experienced from last season to this season. He knows a lot was expected of him – and the Mavs – when Dallas acquired him in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets in the middle of last season. And when success didn’t happen immediately, the critics had a field day. But Irving put his big boy pants on and faced those criticisms head on.

“Part of the human experience is not negotiating with yourself about what you want to achieve – just going after it,” Irving said. “And I think that’s what we did this season. We faced a lot of unforeseen circumstances and we dealt with them, and we kept just our head high and kept our spirits very positive, and I kept encouraging guys.

“I looked back to kind of two months ago and where we were when we lost six games in a row, and fast forward to now. We’re in a good space. We just know that the job isn’t finished and we’re just getting started.”

Wednesday’s game against the Miami Heat was Irving’s 58^th this season. Playing in that many games – coupled with the Mavs winning 50 games – allowed Irving to collect a $1 million bonus.

In addition, the 111-92 triumph over the Heat was sort of a full circle moment for the Mavs in a sense that this string of 16 wins in their last 18 games started on March 7 with a 114-108 victory over the Heat at American Airlines Center.

Still, the Mavs can appreciate their dispatching of the Heat, which coincides with them winning their fifth division title along with winning 50 games for the 16^th time in franchise history.

“We do have to celebrate the small wins, and (Wednesday) was that step in that direction of celebrating the small wins just to get to 50 wins,” Irving said. “Some guys in that locker room have never experienced 50 wins, experienced being in fifth place or fourth place, or playing against a veteran ballclub eventually in the Clippers.

“So, we’re looking forward to that challenge, but also showing our humility toward the game of basketball and make sure we continue to put the work in that’s necessary for us to separate ourselves in that postseason, because that’s what it’s about now.”

Against the Heat, Irving scored 13 of his 25 points in the first quarter after Luka Doncic went to the bench with three fouls. His motor, his skill set, his ability to take charge of a game at any time is part of the reason the Mavs will be hanging another divisional banner in the American Airlines Center rafters.

Now, the Mavs will be looking for more wins – 16, preferably – in the postseason as they attempt to win the franchise’s second championship.

“We’ve (won games) in the regular season,” Irving said. “That’s good and dandy.

“But now this is where the grownups start to use their IQs, start to use their emotional intelligence (and) physical intangibles. And may the best man win.”

Here are the three takeaways from the Mavs’ 19-point win over the Heat.

DONCIC CONTINUES MVP RUN: Luka Dončić continued his quest to win the league’s Most Valuable Player award with another MVP-type performance. Doncic picked up three fouls at the 3:46 mark of the first quarter, but played 36 minutes, scored 29 points, collected nine rebounds and handed out nine assists.

GAFFORD THE PERFECTIONIST: Daniel Gafford keeps associating himself with perfection. Perfection as in, he was 6-of-6 from the field against the Heat and has now converted 22 straight field goals. Earlier this season, Gafford made 33 consecutive field goals, which is two short of the NBA record of 35 in a row set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1967.

THE DEFENSIVE SQUEEZE: The Mavs put the defensive squeeze on a Heat team that has aspirations of getting out of the play-in tournament and into the playoffs. In addition to limiting Miami to only 92 points, the Mavs forced 19 turnovers, blocked eight shots, collected eight steals and held the Heat to just 40.7 percent shooting.

X: @DwainPrice