Kyrie Irving of the Mavs: I need to lower the pressure I’m putting on myself.

Once more, the Mavericks were unable to win with both of their All-Stars on the field at once.
On this occasion, Kyrie Irving missed a contested step-back three-pointer with 0.4 seconds left in Tuesday night’s 124–122 loss to the Indiana Pacers. It was the fourth time in five games that Irving and Luka Doncic played together, and each time the Mavs lost by a solitary possession, which was far from the lift Dallas had hoped for after striking the record-breaking deal with the Brooklyn Nets to acquire Irving.
“I just appreciate the coaching staff and my teammates trusting me with that shot and just the comfort they gave me afterwards,” Irving said after the loss, which dropped Dallas to seventh place in the Western Conference standings. “Really want to win here, really put a lot of pressure on myself at times. I think I need to scale it back a little bit, just because the second half of the season, just feeling like we’ve got to be great every single possession, and usually these learning curves or learning moments happen in preseason, and it’s happening now.
“So it definitely puts a glaring eye on what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong. Easy to criticize, but for us, I’ve just got to focus on being the best that I can be and showing up for not only Luka but for my teammates.”
Doncic’s 24th birthday was soured by the defeat, but he had no complaints about the play after the game when he watched Irving isolate against Pacers guard T.J. McConnell from the corner.
“It was a good shot,” said Doncic, who had 39 points, nine rebounds, and six assists in the loss. “It’s Kyrie. He can make a lot of those shots, and we trust him.”
In seven games with the Mavs, Irving has put up 24.7 points and 6.9 assists on average, including two victories that Doncic missed following the trade while he recovered from a heel injury. The Mavs lost a 27-point lead against the Lakers, and Irving struggled with his shooting in Dallas’ last two games, going a combined 15 of 40 from the field.
After becoming a part of a high-profile transaction and joining the Mavs as they compete for a playoff spot in the second half of the season, Irving recognized he is under pressure to succeed.
“The last two games, I just haven’t played with the fluidity of my game and just complimenting others and just doing the little things to get us wins,” said Irving, who had 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting and nine assists Tuesday night. “I mean, it’s natural. It comes with it. And also, as a human being, I just naturally want to fit in with everybody and not step on anyone’s toes.
“But the magnitude of the moments sometimes warrants special people to go up and beyond and do the extra things. I’m at that place now, but I think I just need to scale back and let the game come to me and flow into it because when we’re playing that tense, I can feel the intensity around me. I think I’ve just got to settle in and stay poised.”
For the first time in his NBA career, Doncic is playing alongside a superstar, whereas Irving is used to doing so. In a free-agent package deal with Kevin Durant, Irving joined the Nets after winning a championship alongside LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Mavs anticipated that combining Irving and Doncic would give them a chance to contend for a title, but Irving doesn’t think that he has lived up to his end of the deal despite playing with the NBA’s leading scorer thus far.
“It’s the big business, baby,” Irving said. “It’s the big business. As much pressure as I put on myself, I have goals that I would love to accomplish, but all those are pushed to the side because I know I have 15 other guys on this team that are relying on me to do things that they’ve either seen me do or they’re expecting me to do as one of the best players in the league. So sitting alongside Luka, I just have to show up to the party.
“I’ve been in situations in this league. Some have been failures, and some have been successes, but over the last few years, I’ve made it a goal of mine to just be stronger mentally, especially dealing with the rigors of this mentally, physically, and emotionally. It’ll come. It’ll come.”