Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets saw their five-game undefeated streak painfully come to an quit on Sunday, as Kyrie Irving went full Kyrie Irving to supply the victory for the Dallas Mavericks.
With the game tied at 105-105, Irvin acquired the inbound pass from the sidelines and attracted the interest of Jokic, who gave the protect a chase. But in spite of Jokic’s extremely good effort to hold up with the Mavericks famous person protect and even with his arm all stretched out in an try to give up the shot, Irving nevertheless buried a left-handed, hook-shot-looking attempt to give Dallas a 107-105 victory at home over the reigning NBA champions.
Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic reacts to Kyrie Irving’s game-winner
“Yeah, it was once the identical motion that they have run earlier than in the game, with the continuation of Kyrie coming from the corner. I imply Kyrie made a really tough shot,” Jokic said after the recreation (h/t Grant Afseth of DallasBasketball.com).
“If anybody may want to make that shot, it was him. I was once surprised, however additionally form of not. He can make that shot for sure.”
Had it been some other participant who had the ball for the Mavericks in that ultimate possession, Jokic probable would have been greater successful on defense. But Kyrie Irving is absolutely an ultra-talented participant on offense with a apparently infinite array of moves in his arsenal. Irving concluded the matchup with 24 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists to go with three steals and a block while going 9-for-23 from the area and 4-for-11 from 3-point distance.
But the Nuggets additionally may have escaped Dallas with a victory and their win streak intact if Nikola Jokic had a a great deal higher outing. The two-time league Most Valuable Player doesn’t always battle with efficiency on offense, however against the Mavs, he went just 6-for-16 from the floor for sixteen factors in 39 minutes.
Jamal Murray led the Nuggets with 23 points, whilst Michael Porter Jr. chipped in 20 factors for the Nuggets, whose loss to the Mavs sent them sliding down to second region in the Western Conference standings with a 47-21 record. That also meant the Oklahoma City Thunder are the sole proprietors of the top spot in the West (just half games beforehand of the Nuggets) at the time of this writing.
