By james art DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Utah Jazz by a final score of 110-102 on Monday night. Dallas now holds a 2-1 record to start the 2024-25 season. The Mavs used a team effort for the win, with six Mavericks scoring in double figures in the game. Kyrie Irving led the way with 23 points and nine assists, but he believes the Mavs are “not close” to their “championship habits.”
“It’s just finding the flow of the game … It just depends from night to night, but specifically since the beginning of the season, man,” Irving told reporters after the game. “It’s not just our team. If you look around the league, it hasn’t been the best possession for a lot of people. The boys return as the game progresses. Also, the whistle is a bit different too. I feel like they let us play a little bit more at the beginning of the season… So we adjust to them.
“Outside of that, I feel like we’re moving in the right direction, but we’ve still got to be better, man. We are nowhere near our championship habits right now. We’re in that stage of development, trying not to get too frustrated, but also to stay encouraged, to stay motivated, to get our feet under us. When that happens, I feel like we’ll be fine.”
Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic develop chemistry with new Mavericks
Kyrie Irving is one of the best players in the NBA. Luka Doncic, Klay Thompson and Irving are looking to lead the Mavericks to a deep postseason run again. This time, however, they want to take care of business in the NBA Finals and win a championship.
Achieving this goal will require a complete team effort. Doncic and Irving are among the best playmakers in the league and are starting to build chemistry with their teammates. On Monday, as mentioned, the Mavericks had six players score in double figures, and Irving and Doncic finished the game with a combined 17 assists.
Spencer Dinwiddie is technically a rookie, even though he previously played for the Mavericks. However, he had not played for the team since the 2022-23 season before this year. He enjoyed a strong game on Monday, scoring 11 points and going 3-4 on three-point attempts.
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Klay Thompson wasted no time developing chemistry with the Mavs. He has played well so far to start his Mavericks career, scoring 18 points with four 3-pointers in the win against the Jazz.
However, the offense starts with Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic. Both players can score 30 or more points if needed. However, they can also affect the game in many different ways. That was proven on Monday when Doncic made a big impact despite only scoring 15 points. Irving played especially well, scoring 23 points to finish with a plus-minus of plus-13.
The Mavericks will play a second game against the Timberwolves on Tuesday night in Minnesota.