Luka Doncic put the Mavericks Game 4 loss to the Timberwolves squarely on his shoulders, but Kyrie Irving has weighed in.
Dallas had the chance to close out the series, win the Western Conference and advance to the NBA Finals, but Minnesota got their first 105-100 win of the series Tuesday.
Despite recording 28 points, 15 rebounds and ten assists, Luka told reporters after the game, “I think that game is on me. Just didn’t give enough energy. So we gotta do better. They won one game, we just gotta focus on the next one.”
Irving on the other hand scored 16 points, two rebounds and four assists and was just 6-18 from the field. Irving was undefeated in closeout games until yesterday, now he’s 14-1.
Kyrie was asked for his thoughts on Luka’s comments after the game.
“I mean, he’s not alone in this,” Irving said. “I expect him to say something like that, especially knowing how much he cares and how much he wants to win. How much he wants to lead our group. So I expect nothing less. I think you heard me too just say that it’s on me. That’s what you’re supposed to hear from the leaders of your team. We know that we didn’t play with the best energy, we didn’t create enough opportunities for us to get easy baskets… Just gotta take the hit on the chin, man.
“It’s not the first time we’ve been hit. Just competitive sports. It’s what makes it great.”
Dallas will now have to play Game 5 in Minnesota but Irving says his team is up for it.
“I think tonight some of those shots that KAT was hitting took the wind out of our sails,” Irving explained. “Anthony [Edwards] got down, got a few easy layups, few pull-ups. And then when we went down six, I just feel like we stopped pushing the ball a little bit. That starts with me. I just gotta continue to keep my pace up and get into the lane. Finish my shots that I have on Rudy (Gobert).
“Those are things that I’m going to correct moving forward. But I just gotta stay aggressive… We just have to consistently do the little things.. Coming out tonight we felt like we were okay. You can tell it was an emotional fatigue… Everybody was pressured. Now we just gotta deal with this one, deal with this loss and get ready for Minnesota and enjoy that ride there man because it’s going to be hostile.”