DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 101-90 in Game 3 of their NBA playoff series on Friday. It was a fiery battle that saw multiple ejections. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving led Dallas again, but the Mavs certainly utilized an all-around team effort.
Doncic finished with 22 points to lead the Mavs. He also recorded 10 rebounds and nine assists. Kyrie Irving added 21 points, six assists, and four rebounds.
Irving, however, scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half of the game. He was still impacting the Mavs in a pivotal manner, though. In the end, we are still talking about Kyrie Irving, a superstar who can start scoring at any given moment. He ended up scoring eight points in the third quarter en route to the aforementioned 19-point second half.
Even though he still made a positive impact in the first half, how did Kyrie remain confident despite his low scoring total? After all, some players would start to spiral after looking up and only seeing two points on the scoreboard. For Irving, though, he understands that winning is the priority.
Kyrie Irving gets 100% real on making positive impact outside of scoring
Kyrie has been around the NBA for a while now. He knows individual scoring is important, but he has also realized that it is not everything.
“There were things that I struggled with as a young player especially in high intense moments where you are kind of used to having the ball in your hands, or you look up at the scoreboard which a lot of us happen to do. I know I'm not the only one,”Irving said. “Sometimes if you don't see your points total looking like normal you can psych yourself out of the game. You can end up being in a position mentally where you are not able to still impact positively. That's something in competitive sports we don't talk about often, just the external pressure that people put on themselves to live up to certain expectations when it's just one game.
“You know, you're playing in the playoffs. If you look at the history of the game, there's not a fancy formula that all these championship teams had. They just continued to battle, continued to do the little things on the defensive end first, and then allowed their offense to flourish.”
Kyrie Irving has played a big role for the Mavericks all season long. He has plenty of postseason experience throughout his career as well. Irving mentioned that when great players struggle in certain games, they still find ways to help the team.
“If you look at some of the greatest players in history, some of their low moments, they didn't score much but they had a huge impact on the game,” Irving continued. “I try to have that same approach mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Then allow my physical talents and abilities to play out in the right time in the right situation. Just being mature about it man. It's two points… It's about winning the game at the end of the day.”
Mavericks lead Clippers 2-1 in series
Dallas now holds a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 is scheduled for Sunday. The Mavs can seize complete momentum with a third consecutive victory in Game 4.
Additionally, the Mavs can count on Kyrie Irving making a positive impact regardless of his scoring output.
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