Luka Doncic on the turmoil at the Dallas Mavericks: "More than a story of winning and losing"
Almost no one in the NBA thought that the Dallas Mavericks could lose to the Charlotte Hornets in the match this morning (March 25).
They have too many advantages, including being able to play at home and get enough rest, while the Hornets have to play their second game in two days, and miss the team's No. 1 star LaMelo Ball due to injury.
But contrary to expectations of an easy victory, the Dallas Mavericks played extremely weakly despite the services of both superstars, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
Charlotte Hornets struggled with the home team in the first 8 minutes, then suddenly jumped up and led 19 points at the beginning of the second half (score 45-26). This gap was maintained and even widened to 21 points when the third half was more than 4 minutes.
A series of 27-7 points helped the Dallas Mavericks erase all the advantage that Charlotte owned, bringing the match score to 96-97. However, this was also the last effort that Doncic and his teammates made.
The match ended with a 117-109 aggregate victory for the Charlotte Hornets, whose odds of winning were less than 20% according to ESPN's computer systems.
After the defeat, Luka Doncic could not hide his disappointment when his team could not overcome a team that was standing at the bottom of the Eastern rankings.
"This feeling is really bad, not only the result of the game but my emotions are not good," Luka Doncic said at a press conference after the Dallas Mavericks' third defeat in a row.
“In the past, people used to see me playing with a lot of fun and laughing a lot. And now the surrounding space is covered with a feeling of discouragement, moodiness. I don't understand why, maybe it's more than winning or losing because we have a lot of problems."
From a team with a fairly solid position in the top 6, the Dallas Mavericks have now dropped to 11th place in the West, outside the play-in group (7th-10th) after the series on March 25.
If the season ends today, Luka Doncic and his teammates will be completely eliminated from the postseason, a disappointing ending compared to the performance of reaching the Western finals last year.
Right at home today, the Mavericks players were booed violently by their own fans. The "boo" sounds were very clear on television, especially when Dallas was leading by 19 points.
It seems that the all-out trade Dallas made at the NBA Trade Deadline for Kyrie Irving didn't live up to fans' expectations. Since the time of the deal, the Mavericks have won only 7 times in 19 matches.
“No one wants to play badly. And especially none of us want to lose the game," Kyrie Irving shared after scoring 18 points, had 9 rebounds and 7 assists.
“I know everyone is trying very hard every time they go on the pitch, but the results have not been as expected. As for the fans, if they don't feel like enjoying the game anymore, they can do something else."
The Dallas Mavericks have 8 games left to close the Regular Season. Now for them, every appearance is a final to raise hopes of a place in the play-in series or beyond, the Playoffs round.
