This is what the Mavericks envisioned when they acquired Kyrie Irving from the Nets.
With do-it-all running mate Luka Doncic off to an uncharacteristically uneven start in Wednesday’s Western Conference Finals opener, Irving stepped up as the superhero.
Irving scored 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting before halftime of Dallas’ 108-105 win in Minnesota, repeatedly finishing tough floaters despite the Timberwolves’ towering interior tandem of Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns.
His early offense helped the Mavs weather an initial punch by the Timberwolves, who led by four points at halftime.
“We probably would be down 20 if he wouldn’t have scored that many points,” Doncic said of Irving. “I appreciate him keeping us in the game.”
Irving finished with 30 points, second only to the 33 scored by Doncic, who closed out the Game 1 victory with 15 points in the final quarter after beginning the game 7-of-18 from the field.
Dallas continues to excel with Doncic, a ball-dominant triple-double machine, running the show and Irving fitting next to him as one of the NBA’s best second options. A point guard by trade, Irving previously played off of the ball alongside LeBron James in Cleveland and James Harden in Brooklyn.
Trading for Irving in February 2023 certainly came with risk, considering Irving’s Nets tenure was filled with tumult. He sat out most of the 2021-22 season after declining to meet New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, then served an eight-game suspension the following season for tweeting a link to a documentary critics slammed as anti-Semitic.
Irving asked to be traded, just like he did before the Cavaliers sent him to Boston in 2017. The Nets received a package from Dallas that included Spencer Dinwiddie, who is no longer with the team, and Dorian Finney-Smith.
Days after the Irving trade, the Nets sent Kevin Durant to Phoenix, ending an ill-fated “Big Three” era that resulted in only one postseason series win. Brooklyn had sent Harden to Philadelphia a year earlier.
“It was the best decision of my career just to be able to ask for a trade,” Irving said in October before facing the Nets for the first time since the deal. “I knew I needed peace of mind.”
With the Mavericks, Irving effectively served as a replacement for Jalen Brunson, whom Dallas drafted but failed to extend before he signed with the Knicks as a free agent in 2022.
Dallas was 29-26 when it acquired Irving during the 2022-23 season but went just 9-18 the rest of the way and missed the play-in tournament. Doncic and Irving played in only 20 games together in that stretch, during which the Mavericks’ post-trade depth was tested.
The Mavs were fined $750,000 for tanking at the end of that season. They would have owed their 2023 first-round draft pick to the Knicks as part of the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis trade had it been outside of the top 10, but Dallas ended up with the No. 10 pick. It selected center Dereck Lively, who continues to establish himself as a shot-blocking building block.
Dallas retooled in the offseason — and then again at the trade deadline with its acquisitions of center Daniel Gafford and wing PJ Washington — and finished this season 50-32, good for fifth in the West. Irving averaged 25.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game in the regular season, during which he shot 49.7% from the field and 41.1% on 3-pointers.
Irving, 32, has delivered in a variety of roles during the Mavericks’ playoff run. He averaged 26.5 points per game in the first round against the Clippers, then took a backseat to Doncic in the second round against top-seeded Oklahoma City with 15.7 points on 14.0 shot attempts per game.
His ability to score on the nights that Doncic, who has dealt with knee and ankle injuries this postseason, isn’t at his All-NBA best has proven valuable for the Mavericks. That was the case Wednesday, despite Irving being defended by the ultra-athletic Anthony Edwards.
Irving’s 2017 championship with Cleveland makes him an exception during an NBA postseason in which the final four teams — Dallas, Minnesota, Boston and Indiana — are each led by a player seeking his first title.
“I’ve been here before, so a little bit more poise on my end,” Irving said after Wednesday’s win. “Just being able to start the game with confidence and that aggression.”
The Nets, meanwhile, slumped to a 32-50 record this season, their first full campaign without Irving and Durant. They continue to seek an identity in a league driven by superstars.
Irving and the Mavericks look to extend their series lead in the Western Conference Finals in Friday night’s Game 2 in Minnesota.
