Mavs' Kyrie Irving - Need to scale back pressure I'm putting on myself

DALLAS — Once again, the Mavericks failed to finish with their pair of All-Stars on the floor together.

On this occasion, Kyrie Irving missed a contested step-back 3-pointer on the final possession of a 124-122 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night. It marked the fourth time in five games that Irving has played alongside Luka Doncic that the Mavs lost, with all of the defeats coming by a one-possession margin — far from the boost Dallas hoped to get when it made the blockbuster 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."

The loss put a damper on Doncic's 24th birthday, but he took no issue with the play at the end of the game, when he watched from the corner as Irving isolated against Pacers guard T.J. McConnell.

«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.»

Irving has averaged 24.7 points and 6.9 assists in seven