Kyrie Irving on Mavs: 'It's a little bit of a clusterf**k right now'

On Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks lost to thePhiladelphia 76ers 116-108. The Mavericks have now lost five oftheir last six games (and eight of their last 11 contests).

Joel Embiid had 25 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists for the76ers, while James Harden chipped in 25 points, 9 rebounds and 3assists.

For the Mavs, Luka Doncic finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds,8 rebounds and 4 threes, while Kyrie Irving contributed 23 points,6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 threes and 2 steals in the losingeffort.

The Mavericks currently have the 11th-best record in the WesternConference, meaning they wouldn't even be in the Play-In Tournamentif the postseason started today.

With that said, Dallas is just one game behind the Oklahoma CityThunder for the West's final Play-In Spot, and they are still justtwo games back from the seventh-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves.

After the loss to Philly, Irving was asked about being tradedmidseason and the team's recent struggles.

"[It's] just human nature, man; I'm getting traded to a new workenvironment, and it's just a lot of newness," Irving said, according to ESPN's TimBontemps. "I'm trying to introduce myself to everybody, figureout, you know, who do guys go to on the team to confide in off thecourt? Who is our our coaching staff as people? Upper management,who are they as people? What do they expect from me? The bigquestion: why they traded for me? And, you know, what does it looklike for the future? That's the big question: what does our futurelook like? What does our future look like?

"I think now, just where we are in the season and where otherteams are positioned already, it kind of looks like a bit of aclusterf**k, to be honest with you. Because we're 37-40, and we'retrying to fight to get into the Play-In game. It's not theexpectations I don't think any of us had in that locker room. Andme getting traded midseason... I didn't expect to ask for a tradeat that point in the season. I wanted to finish out with Brooklyn,finish out with the season that we had going, and I didn't get achance to do that.

"So some of the goals I had previously this season had to beshifted, and I had to be more than willing, which I am, to beflexible and adaptable and live with the results, whether we makethe playoffs or not. I just have to be at peace with where I am,which I am, and trust the guys that I'm going to be in that warroom with every single day. So, I'm appreciative of them giving methe opportunity. It's been nothing but great here. And I've been atpeace. So it's been good, outside of the losses, of course. We'dlike to win every game."

The Mavericks have just five more games to turn things aroundand secure a playoff spot.