Kyrie Irving pulled off what would go down as one of the wildest plays in the NBA this season, hitting a running left-handed buzzer-beating shot from over 20 feet out to lift the Dallas Mavericks to a 107-105 victory over the Denver Nuggets.
But it’s unclear if the viral game-winning play was by design or if the Nuggets just did a good job denying Luka Doncic the ball. From this angle shown bellow, it appeared Maxi Kleber was looking to pass to Doncic before finding Irving curling off a screen from the baseline.
Fortunately, the star guard displayed the ability to rise to the occasion, which he has proven time and time again. If such a situation emerges in future games, the Mavs might just want to hand the rock to Irving again and let the ball wizard cast his spell.
Intriguing stat shows why Mavericks should trust Irving in the clutch over Doncic
This angle of the Kyrie Irving game winner 🤯
— Noah Weber (@noahweber00) March 17, 2024
While it might seem counter-intuitive to get the ball out of Doncic’s hands during the waning seconds of a contest with the game on the line, his teammate has shown to be more effective.
In the regular season for his career, Irving has sunk a total of nine lead-taking shots in the final five seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime. Only Stephen Curry, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, and DeMar DeRozan have made more such shots than him since the 2009-10 season.
With his UNBELIEVABLE game winner tonight, Kyrie Irving is now top 5 in lead taking shots in the final 5 seconds of a game over the last 15 years! pic.twitter.com/GFNBsNQdEY
— Automatic (@automaticnba) March 18, 2024
In contrast, Doncic is 4-for-17 in those kinds of situations. Interestingly, the Slovenian superstar has better efficiency than Westbrook and DeRozan. Still, it might be in the Mavs’ best interest to defer to Irving, especially if they find themselves needing some last-second heroics in the playoffs.
Of course, that’s not to say Doncic should be in spectator mode when Dallas has to get buckets in crunch time. After all, he has also usually demonstrated his clutch genes. For example, Irving’s game-winner on Sunday wouldn’t have been possible without Luka’s 3-pointer over 20 seconds earlier, which tied the contest at 105-105.
Doncic also looked like a frontrunner for the Clutch Player of the Year award early in the 2023-24 campaign after leading the Mavs to a 9-2 record in clutch moments. The team still has the highest win percentage at 70.4% in such situations.
The “LuKai” tandem has already proven to be one of the league’s top duos. The fact that both of them can be trusted in crunch time makes them an even scarier opponent to face in high-stake contests.
For more updates on Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks, stay tuned with us.
