“He (Kyrie Irving) is Batman, I am Robin. Outside of basketball he is a great person and we all get along very well. The chemistry is very good right now.”declared Luka Doncic after the victory of Dallas Mavericks of March 26 on Sacramento Kings by 132-96 as visitors.
This was a very important victory for Dallasbecause of how they did it against one of the competitive rivals in the West, because they were tied with Sacramento in the standings and now they took advantage of them and because it opens up the possibility of winning a hypothetical tiebreaker against the Kings – they need to defeat them again on Friday the 29th –
The Mavs still have the possibility of reaching the top 4 in the West and thus clarify their outlook a little for the Playoffs, with the home field advantage in the First Round and the hope of, why not, going even further than the Semifinals. Their moment of form makes them hopeful: they won nine of the 10 games they played since March 7with wins against Miami, Golden State, Sacramento and Denver, among others. Doncic was not in the only defeatvs. OKC Thunder.
The chemistry is amazing, man 🧪@luka7doncic // #MFFL pic.twitter.com/DQr2IokrEa
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) March 27, 2024
That Dallas uprising has relied on the defensive growth of the team, which in the season has a defensive rating of 115.8 but In the last 10 games he improved it to 106.5, the second best record in the NBA in this period. Of course, what they have been regular in throughout the campaign is when it comes to attacking and that is why they have almost 60% victories, with their record of 43-29.
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Doncic is being the NBA leading scorer with their 33.9 so many per game and will achieve for the first time that title of “scoring champion” that a Mavericks player had never achieved. To that he also adds almost 10 assists per game (9.8).
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But the plus for Doncic that Dallas has never had in the Playoffs until now is called Kyrie Irving. Last season they only shared 15 games and Dallas only won four of them. This season, when they were together, they managed to make Dallas win 64% of their games (29-15), and Irving’s 22 absences due to injuries and various reasons are one of the reasons why the Mavs are not higher in the West standings.
In today’s NBA there are several pairs of great scorers: Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey of the 76ers, LeBron James and Anthony Davis of the Lakers, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker of the Suns, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard of the Bucks and Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle of the Knicks. They all average 24 points per game or more and are two All-Star level talents like Luka and Kyrie. But none of them are producing like the two of them.
Luka range is REAL 🪄 pic.twitter.com/oY0WRpyynQ
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) March 27, 2024
Los Mavericks son, according to the use of the ball, the team that most concentrates its offensive actions on two players. Something logical in a team designed like this, with pure specialists in shooting on foot or finishing over the rim and little else. The point is that the duo of Doncic and Irving responds with production.
No two-player combo generates as many points and assists as the 59.2 points and 15.1 assists that add up to the averages per game for Luka and Kyrie. That represents 49.7% of the Mavericks’ scoring average and 58.5% of their assists.
Irving adds 25.3 points, 5 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game to Doncic’s daily game of almost 33 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists per game. And what impacts rivals is how one can punish when the other does not.
👌 KAI is THAT guy 👌 pic.twitter.com/lFTl20CM6E
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) March 27, 2024
In the first half of the Kings’ 132-96 victory, Doncic scored 26 points in 15 shots and Irving was at 6 points with 3-7 from the field. In the second half, after Dallas went to halftime with a 5-point lead, Irving scored 18 points with 7-12 from the field and Luka added just two points, without playing in the last quarter.
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Doncic’s shooting percentages have fallen during this great stretch of the Mavs in the last three weeks, at 43.3% from the field and 35.4% in triples. But Irving maintained his 49% from the field and in two of the nine games they shared he scored more than Luka, while in two others – the last two – the difference between one and the other was four points or less.
Despite Luka’s modesty, if anyone is Batman in this duo it is Doncic: The Slovenian is the main protagonist of these Mavericks, just like Bruce Wayne in Gotham City. But On many occasions Batman has needed to have a Robin. And Doncic finally has one in Dallashaving for the first time a teammate who averages more than 20 points per game.
2024-03-27 18:09:27
#lethal #offensive #duo #NBA
