When it comes to must-win situations, this past weekend ranked highly for the Dallas Mavericks.
But … they dropped the ball in embarrassing fashion.
In two favorable matchups against the Charlotte Hornets, who hold the league’s fourth-worst record, the Mavericks failed to land in the win column, including Sunday’s most recent 110-104 loss on the road.
Losers of four straight games and now finding themselves on the outside looking in of the play-in tournament, Dallas has seven games remaining to get back on track and stamp their ticket to at least a small taste of the postseason.
One thing hindering the Mavs as of late has been injuries to both Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. For Irving, he’s been battling a foot injury that he re-aggravated on last week against the Memphis Grizzlies, which Irving said he’s trying his best to manage.
“It’s definitely making or missing shots, but like I said, kind of like a week ago, just trying my best to manage this [foot injury] and there’s a lot of desperation basketball that needs to be played down the stretch, especially where we are in the season and also in the standings,” Irving said of his recent struggles.
In the two matchups with the Hornets, Irving struggled shooting from the field, hitting just 11-of-31 attempts from the floor and 3-of-14 from 3-point range. But, if he’s out there, Irving says ‘there’s no excuses.’
“I would love to just be one hundred percent healthy and just being able to just play and flow in the game. But, I’m out there, so there’s no excuses,” Irving said. “I just got to strap up my bootstraps and beat everything that I can for my teammates and coaching staff.”
Despite losing a fourth consecutive game and battling his foot injury, Irving tries to stay positive and ‘keep moving forward’ for his team to close out the regular season strong.
“I don’t want to get too cliche here, but just gotta keep on moving forward and keep on progressing. Chop wood, carry water — same thing.”
The wood pile is getting smaller by the day, and the water well is getting dangerously close to running dry for the Mavericks.
Source: yardbarker.com
