DALLAS – Attention entering Friday night’s Nets game in Dallas revolved around Kyrie Irving, who was facing Brooklyn for the first time since his tumultuous tenure with the team ended with a February trade.
But it was the Mavericks’ other superstar, Luka Doncic, who burned Brooklyn in the Nets’ 125-120 loss at the American Airlines Center.
Doncic exploded for 49 points, with the final three coming on an off-balance, one-handed desperation heave that somehow went off the glass and through the basket as the shot clock expired. His contested three-pointer over former teammate Dorian Finney-Smith broke a 120-120 tie with 26.1 seconds remaining and put the Mavericks up for good.
“Playing one of the best players in the league, there’s only so much you can do,” said Nets guard Cam Thomas, who led Brooklyn with 30 points. “The last shot, I don’t know what he did. One-handed, off the glass, you’ve got to tip your hat to him.”
The improbable game-winner lifted Irving, who finished with 17 points after an uncharacteristically inefficient first half in which he only scored five points on 2-of-8 shooting.
Friday’s game commanded extra attention, considering the Nets appeased Irving’s trade request less than 10 months ago, ending a three-and-a-half-season stint fraught with off-court drama.
Irving, 31, missed much of the 2021-22 season after declining to meet New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Last season, the Nets suspended Irving for eight games after he tweeted a link to a documentary critics slammed as anti-Semitic.
After failing to reach a contract extension, the Nets traded Irving to Dallas for a package that included Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie. On Thursday, Irving called requesting a trade out of Brooklyn the “best decision” of his career.
“It’s just another game, man, to be honest with you,” Irving said after Friday’s win. “I don’t know if it’s just a media thing against your former team to have this angst, this anger against them, but for me personally, it was just another game going against some of my brothers in the league.”
Doncic’s heroics spoiled an otherwise encouraging night for the Nets, who started faster on defense, improved their three-point shooting and delivered a more balanced offensive performance than they did in their season-opening loss to the Cavaliers at Barclays Center.
The result was the same, however, with the Nets failing to execute down the stretch and losing on a clutch shot by an NBA All-Star. Donovan Mitchell nailed a go-ahead three-pointer with 12.1 seconds remaining Wednesday to seal Cleveland’s 114-113 victory.
“What makes teams very special at the end of the day is they have dudes who can make tough shots just like Donovan did against us the first night, Luka did tonight,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. “That’s the difference in the layers of the league, in my opinion. We’ll grow to understand how to make plays like that at the end of the night.”
The Nets lack a clear-cut superstar following last winter’s midseason trades of Irving to Dallas and Kevin Durant to Phoenix. They now hope to win with their depth but played shorthanded Friday, with sharp-shooting forward Cam Johnson (left calf contusion) and center Nic Claxton (left ankle sprain) out with injuries.
Thomas, who scored 36 points off the bench Wednesday, and Finney-Smith started in their places, giving Brooklyn a smaller, quicker lineup that showcased the run-and-gun style of offense Vaughn preached all preseason.
Defensive stops led to fast-break opportunities for open three-pointers, which the Nets took advantage of. After going 9-of-27 from three in Wednesday’s opener, Brooklyn made 21-of-43 on Friday, with point guard Ben Simmons pushing the tempo en route to 10 assists.
Six of those threes came from Dinwiddie, who connected from deep on three consecutive possessions during a torrid second-quarter stretch. He scored 23 points in his return to Dallas, while Finney-Smith added 12. Mikal Bridges finished with 18 points after scoring 10 in the first quarter.
The Nets also played polished defense early, holding the efficient Dallas offense to 26 points on 40% shooting in the first quarter after surrendering 37 points to Cleveland in the opening period.
Brooklyn made life particularly difficult for Irving, whose five first-half points all came in the first quarter. Thomas, Dinwiddie and Dennis Smith Jr. took turns guarding Irving, frequently meeting him at the top of the key and receiving help when the explosive guard booked toward the basket. Finney-Smith set the tone early with a physical stop on a driving Irving on his first attempt of the night.
“We just wanted to mess up his timing, his rhythm, a little bit, and yeah, he was a little off,” said Thomas, a friend and mentee of Irving. “That was just a credit to us and our gameplan a little bit, being up on him at the screen, just mixing up on him a little bit. Thought we did a real good job on Ky.”
The Nets had no answer, however, for Doncic, who shot 16-of-25 from the field and 9-of-14 from three. That proved to be the difference as Brooklyn fell to 0-2.
Friday marked the first of four consecutive road games for the Nets, who get their next chance at their first win Monday night in Charlotte.
