The Dallas Mavericks celebrated the return of Kyrie Irving at the American Airlines Center tonight. However, the jubilation lasted only until they made the first basket. From that time on, they never came close to taking back their lead. Jamal Murray orchestrated an expert-scoring performance, pouring a season-high 45 to diminish the injury-laden Mavs. However, what Jason Kidd noticed was a lack of effort.

With the return of KAI, naturally, the onus shifted upon him to carry the load. But recovering from a lower back injury and then instantly resuming his groove wouldn’t be easy. And so it wasn’t. Off his 18 shots, Irving only made four, scoring 11 points on his return. The Mavericks guard shared his gruesome experience while on the sidelines.

“I couldn’t even put on my socks standing up. I had to sit down every single time. I couldn’t really meditate. I was getting a lot of uncomfortable feeling down in my hamstring and also just down my leg… t’s not to the point where it’s bad enough where I need surgery,” he told the reporters after the game.

But troubles seemed to befall the Mavericks in greater capacity. Dereck Lively II exited the game in just four minutes with an ankle injury. In addition, no Mavs player scored even 15 points during the whole contest. The struggles led to a frustrated Jason Kidd sending a resounding message to his team. In the process of them getting healthy, they can’t stop being tenacious.

“The big message is we got healthy, and I think we just took a step back with Kai coming back. We watched Kai play. It happens. You get someone of his caliber come back you expect him to carry the load… We’ll be able to use this game as we get healthy, that we cannot just rely on Kai,or Luka, or Dante, or D-Live. You have to do your part and tonight as a whole we just didn’t do our part,” Kidd commented about the Mavs’ lackadaisical defense against the Nuggets.

With Doncic still out for a few more weeks, the Mavericks need to learn how to win as a collective. They have a tough schedule ahead of them. And if there’s any hope of keeping the season aspiring, it’s by a united effort.

Jamal Murray and the Nuggets were unstoppable against Kyrie Irving and the Mavs

Although the Mavericks may have made things convenient, the Nuggets still needed to be precise. Throughout this season, that responsibility has fallen on to Nikola Jokic. The three-time MVP did have another triple-double, but he could play into his natural prototype of being unselfish.

It’s because Jamal Murray couldn’t seem to miss.

Until this point in the season, Murray was yet to come a breakthrough performance. The Canadian guard did find a string of consistent form. But an explosion to revive his reputation seemed imminent. And it occured against the Mavericks. Shooting 69.2% in his electric performance, Murray never let KAI settle.

His contributions proved key for the Nuggets who have now beat the Mavericks in back-to-back games in the same arena. As their recovery continues to succeed, Denver is starting to look like a legitimate threat once again.