Contrary to what you may have heard, the Mavericks did not have their scouts outside American Airlines Center on Wednesday looking for anybody taller than 6-8 who appeared to be even remotely athletic.
As it turned out, they had all they needed.
They had Kyrie Irving.
The superstar guard made play after play, including taking a key charge, and steadied the Mavericks during a frantic finish as they pulled out an improbable111-107 victory over the Golden State Warriors Wednesday night at American Airlines Center.
Irving, who racked up 42 points in 40 minutes, won a fourth-quarter duel with Steph Curry, who missed the second of two free throws with 37.3 seconds left, leaving the game tied at 107.
The Mavericks worked a nice play when the Warriors sent the double-team at Irving and Naji Marshall converted a short jumper in the paint for a 109-107 lead with 25.6 showing.
The Warriors got the ball to newcomer Jimmy Butler, who wheeled into the paint, but plowed into Irving, who drew the offensive foul against Butler.
When Max Christie made two free throws with 10.4 to go, the Mavericks were up 111-107 and had staved off a big-time Warriors’ rally.
“Grit was high, energy and effort was great,” coach Jason Kidd said. “Great bounce-back win from that last one (a one-point loss Monday to Sacramento). Guys are playing hard. A lot of trust, a lot of leadership and a lot of people chipped in. I thought the guys did a really good job on Steph, trying to make it tough. He’s going to score. And then when he took the lead, I thought the group stayed together.”
Irving and Curry both made clutch baskets in the fourth quarter, including a bevy of three-pointers. But it was Irving who was able to make the biggest of plays and the fact that it came at the defensive end spoke volumes about his will to win on this night.
He explained the defensive stop in great detail.
“I guessed right, man,” Irving said. “I was fortunate enough to get that call to go our way. I saw he was about to try to do an overhead swivel coming across the lane, got into a switch. I was below the free-throw line and he came down with a full head of steam.
“I just tried to get in his way and make him make a decision that probably wasn’t comfortable. He’s a great player and again, I was fortunate enough to get the call to go our way and be in the right position and sacrifice myself for the greater good of the team.”
It was a play that sent a strong message to everybody in the sellout crowd, but also to teammates.
“It speaks to his character as a player and as a human,” Christie said. “He’s very selfless. A play like that when he sacrifices his body, to make a winning play for us – we don’t win that game if he’s not there to take the charge. But he was there and gave us an opportunity to seal the game and we did that with good execution down the stretch.”
And just how improbable was this win? The Mavericks had seven players out with assorted injuries. The long injury list included Daniel Gafford, who they found out Tuesday will be out at least two weeks with a right knee sprain.
That’s in addition to the other centers/big men who are out – Dereck Lively II (right ankle stress fracture) and Anthony Davis (left adductor strain). Also out: P.J. Washington (ankle), Dante Exum (Achilles tightness), Dwight Powell (hip) and Caleb Martin (hip).
Kidd said that Washington will be out until after the All-Star break, as will most of the others on the infirmary report.
But Irving rescued the Mavericks, with help from Klay Thompson and Christie, both of whom had 17 points.
The Mavericks were pushing the pace whenever they got the chance and it paid off as Irving sliced through Golden State’s defense on a regular basis.
When the Mavericks got a turnover courtesy of a Brandon Williams steal, they had to survive a minute-long bit of uncertainty among the refs. But when the Mavericks got the ball, Max Christie cut through the lane for a layup and an 89-80 Mavericks lead with 10:26 to go.
Irving hit a couple of three-pointers to keep the Mavericks in charge and with 5:59 to go, they called a timeout with Irving asking to come out of the game, simply because he was clearly gassed. He had played all of the fourth quarter to that point, which was at a frantic pace throughout.
But Curry had 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, when the Warriors took their first lead since the first quarter. But he could not outshine Irving.
“He’s doing everything to help the team win,” Kidd said of Irving. “His intent offensively is at a high, but his defense with coming up with steals and the big charge there at the end.”
And he had been doing plenty of work before that, too.
A quick-hitting heater by Irving helped give the Mavericks a 77-62 midway through the third quarter. Irving had three consecutive three-pointers, two of them of the pull-up variety on fast-break opportunities.
It was the kind of spurt that was needed, although the Mavericks only were up 83-78 going into the fourth period.
The most immediate concern is at center, where the Mavericks were down to O-Max Prosper, Kessler Edwards and Kylor Kelley. Edwards and Kelley are both two-way players.
So what happened? Prosper had a career-best six assists – in the first half – and the Mavericks had a 57-56 lead at the break.
Edwards had three blocks and matched Prosper’s six assists, both tying for the team lead.
“We have no choice,” Christie said. “We have no bigs, basically. Three centers, three big shot-blockers, three big anchors to our defense that are out. When we’re small, it’s on us to play with as much effort as we can. That’s kind of what defense is all about. If you play with effort it’ll clean up a lot of our mistakes. It kind of shows our energy, effort and grit.”
X: @ESefko
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