By Itoro N. Umontuen | The Atlanta Voice
Kyrie Irving scored 32 points, including sixteen in the fourth quarter. Irving led his Dallas Mavericks past the Atlanta Hawks 129-119 at State Farm Arena Monday night. Dallas played tonight without star players Luka Dončić and Klay Thompson. Dončić missed tonight’s game with a wrist injury and Thompson did not play due to plantar fascia. Also, the Mavericks were playing tonight after facing off against the Miami Heat less than 24 hours ago.
“I think that anytime you’re a great scorer, I mean, it only takes one or two shots to go in to really find a rhythm,” explained Trae Young. “I mean when you playing with a lot of guys out, a lot of people would say they were playing with house money tonight. got one to go. He played 41 minutes. And when you when you’re a good scorer, and you see one or two go in, you can easily get into rhythm.”
Jaden Hardy had a season-high 23 points in his first start of the season for Dallas. Naji Marshall and Spencer Dinwiddie had 22 points each. A major talking point was the idea the Hawks have a proclivity of allowing role players to shine. The Mavericks have won five out of their last six games.
“I don’t think any of us expect teams to come in and feel like they’re going have a bad night right now,” Young said. “It’s definitely frustrating because you see this guy report, you watch film, and guys aren’t playing the way they do. And then they come here. We can’t just think it’s just gonna happen when they come in here. We gotta make it happen and force them to miss more shots. So that’s on us as a defense and coaching staff.”
The Hawks next two games will be against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The team will travel to Cleveland on Wednesday and the second game will be played in Atlanta on Friday afternoon.
