In the large scheme of sports disasters, collapse, errors, supervisors and particularities, Last month of the Dallas Mavericks season stands out. It did not improve on Wednesday.
A month later Trading Luka Dončićthree weeks later Lose Anthony Davis because of the injury And a day after lose Kyrie Irving for the seasonThe Mavericks Lost 137-107 at Milwaukee Bucks. It was their fourth defeat in their last five games.
Before the match, however, the Mavericks coach Jason Kidd responded to speculation that the team’s decision -making contributed to the drop in Irving. In the previous six weeks, Irving led the NBA in minutes per game with 38.7, Most of which were played after having become the team’s offensive center of the team after Dončić’s trade.
This included five consecutive games with at least 40 minutes immediately after trade. Via APKidd described the injury a “bizarre accident” and complained about “conspiracy theories”, insisting that Irving wanted the workload:
“He invited this,” said Kidd. “He wanted that. But do we report this? Are we? No, we don’t report that. We report that we direct someone in the ground. This is not true. It’s his work, it’s playing. And he likes to play.
“And it’s good to play 40 minutes at the age of 32, in a month. It’s not all season, right? I think that sometimes we take things a little too far, or we do not really say the truth because we want tastes or hearts, or we want someone to put us on this platform not to tell the whole truth. Because it was a weird accident. It happened at the start of the game. We should promote our athletes, our players to play more minutes and play more games, but are we? Probably not. “”
Irving is 32 years old and has faced many injuries during his career. It is Kidd’s work to say no if a player wants a workload that may not be sustainable.
Mavericks in digital disadvantage blown by Bucks
There was no drama for loss. Dallas was down to two figures at the end of the first quarter, down 19 at half-time and down to 35 in the second period. Klay Thompson, the latest old star in the range, led the Mavs with 28 points, but that was not enough to compensate for the 30 points of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.
Not only did MAV miss Davis and Irving, but almost their Big-Man rotation was injured, among other players. In his fifth match since his return from a hip tension, Dwight Powell obtained his second departure from the season at the center and scored six points.
Lots of Mavs tonight against the Bucks 🤕
Kyrie Irving (ACL)
Anthony Davis (adductor)
PJ Washington (ankle)
Daniel Gafford (knee)
Dereck Lively II (ankle)
Kai Jones (Quad)
Caleb Martin (hip)
Jaden Hardy (ankle)
Dané Exum (foot) pic.twitter.com/evtdryl50g– Yahoo Sports (@yahoosports) March 6, 2025
The Bucks pulled 58.6% in the field, 45.7% on a 3-point range and exceeded the MAVs, 60-38.
In theory, the Mavericks will go better once Davis will return. Part of the reason they exchanged against the former Los Angeles Lakers champion, in addition to losing confidence in Dončić, was to consolidate their defense while adding a great versatile man in attack. But why come back if the season is lost?
This plan was built on Irving still there, however, and it will probably not be ready for the start of next season. The Mavericks therefore end up with a massively digital disadvantage list and a record of 32-31, good enough for 10th place in the West. But there are few reasons to expect them to do anything with a place of play.
With 19 games to play in the season, the Mavericks have a 2.5 -game advance on the Phoenix Suns and are entirely encouraged to lose for the rest of the season, in the hope that their victory nucleus will in fact win next season. It is a non -enviable position, Created by a combination of bad decisions, bad luck and basic logic.
