The Dallas Mavericks‘ victory reign is back! The team began their 2023-24 regular season on a triumphant note with four consecutive wins. They took a break with the loss against the defending champions, Denver Nuggets. But then, they continued the good times with two more wins. After another loss, they are now back with another win over the LA Clippers.
While Luka Doncic was the star of the show, Kyrie Irving also showed up, putting up his season-high. He did so at the perfect time for his first match-up of this season with his former Brooklyn Nets teammate, James Harden.
Kyrie Irving puts his best foot forward
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Irving has been averaging 20.3 points this season with 3.8 rebounds, and 7.3 assists while shooting 43.1% from the field. His previous highest score this season was 22 points in three different games. But it changed on Friday night as he scored 27 points with six rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
This score, along with Luka Doncic‘s 44 points, helped the Mavs to seal their seventh victory. They are now in the 1st position in the Southwest Division. As they continue to stack more wins, fans are curious to see how the two will lead their team to what could be their second championship since 2011.
The Irving-Harden reunion
The two guards spent a year playing together with the Brooklyn Nets between 2021-2022. Kyrie had joined the team in 2019 and was already settled in the team by the time James joined in 2021. From the start, there were doubts about how well these two would get along since they are both ball-dominant guards who had a history of refusing to be the team players.
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All the speculations turned out to be true as Harden requested a trade just a year with the Nets with no proper explanation. They both had only nice words to say about each other to the media. But anyone could tell the underlying tensions between the two.
But since then, both have changed teams as Irving joined the Mavericks earlier this year and Harden joined the LA Clippers earlier this month. As they continue to make strides with their new teams, they still do maintain a civil ‘friendship’ with Kyrie even coming to Harden’s defense during his trade drama with the front office of the Philadelphia Sixers.
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With his excellent performance against his ex-teammate, Kyrie is now back in the game. Will he help Dallas win their second championship?