Kyrie Irving senses Mavs’ urgency in new star pairing with Luka Doncic

DALLAS (AP) — Kyrie Irving senses the stress oftrying to figure things out with Luka Doncic and the rest of hisnew Dallas teammates as the Mavericks jostle for playoffpositioning in the tightly packed Western Conference.

The superstars are 1-4 together since the blockbuster trade thatbrought Irving over from Brooklyn, giving Dallas two All-Starstarters for the first time in franchise history.

One or both has had the ball in his hands with a chance to tieor win in the final seconds of each of those four losses.

Since they didn’t come through, they’re now at risk of a 1-6start together.

Philadelphia and Joel Embiid, neck-and-neck with Doncic in thescoring race, visit Thursday night followed by Phoenix and newlyacquired star Kevin Durant on Sunday.

“Right now, it’s just high-intense environment. I can feel it,”Irving said after missing a last-second 3-pointer in Tuesday’s124-122 loss to Indiana. “Everybody wants to win. That’s a greatthing. Everybody cares. But now we’ve just got to figure out whatour temperament is, what our emotion is.”

That, along with offensive tendencies and defensive coverages,among plenty of other things. Without much time to do it.

The loss to the Pacers, which came two days after Dallas blew a27-point lead in a 111-108 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, droppedthe Mavs out of the top six in the West with 19 gamesremaining.

The good news for Dallas: A modest winning streak could restorehope for home-court advantage in the first round, which the Mavs(32-31) had last year in reaching the West finals.

The bad news: A not-very-long losing streak could lead to Dallasmissing the playoffs altogether. That would be a catastrophicoutcome considering what the club gave up to get Irving with noguarantee that he will re-sign as an unrestricted free agent thissummer.

“I really want to win here, really put a lot of pressure onmyself,” Irving said. “At times, I think I need to scale it back alittle bit. Usually these learning curves and learning momentshappen in preseason, but it’s happening now. It puts a glaring eyeon what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong.”

Since the Mavs led 48-21 in the second quarter against theLakers, Irving is 1 of 13 from 3-point range. Doncic had 14 pointsin the first quarter against the Lakers, but just 12 afterthat.

In their first game together, Doncic missed a potential tying 3with 14 seconds left in overtime of a 133-128 loss at Sacramento.The next game, they exchanged three passes and didn’t get off ashot in the final seconds of a 124-121 loss at home toMinnesota.

A mixup on Irving’s inbound pass to Doncic with 15 seconds leftagainst the Lakers took away a chance to tie. Then Irving missed acontested 3 with Doncic watching from a corner against the Pacers,who had won just four of their previous 21 games.

“It was a good shot, I think,” Doncic said. “He can make a lotof those shots. We trust him.”

Trust will be another topic as Dallas tries to ensure at least achance to match last season’s playoff run, which ended with afive-game loss to the eventual champion Golden State.

The Mavs say they couldn’t pass up a chance to put a superstaralongside Doncic, even a disgruntled one on an expiring contract. A2-5 start since Irving joined Dallas is making the clock tick alittle faster.

“I know there’s 15 other guys that are relying on me to dothings that they’ve either seen me do or they’re expecting me to doas one of the best players in the league,” said Irving, aneight-time All-Star who won a title alongside LeBron James inCleveland in 2016. “Sitting alongside Luka, I just have to show upto the party.”

And it’s starting to get a little late.