If it was Kyrie Irving who put the Mavericks back in the right direction and in the game against the Kings, it's Dante Exum who had the last word, with the victory basket. A 3-point shot scored less than thirty seconds from the end, to give the Texans a three-point lead.
A shot far from trivial for the playmaker, since he remained on three failures in a row behind the arc during the previous two minutes.
“It’s incredible and it shows the confidence that exists in our team”, congratulates himself Luka Doncic. “It’s a beautiful moment”continues Irving. “He missed some fairly open shots but he made the one that matters the most and that we needed the most. I loved, after his two failures, on the bench, that we looked at each other to say that everything was going to end well. »
“That’s the beauty of this team: if the ball leaves the hands of Doncic and Irving, someone is going to make the difference”
The double take on Doncic started it all. The Slovenian served PJ Washington, who saw the Australian all alone at 3-points. A simple and perfectly executed action.
“We have confidence in Dante Exum. He has open shots and we believe in him to put them in”underlines his coach Jason Kidd. “He shoots 51% 3-point success. The trust Doncic and Irving have in him is significant. They thought he was going to do the right thing, and that was the case with that big shot. »
The former Jazz player can actually count on the support of his teammates. “Everyone keeps telling me to keep shooting. If I'm open the whole game, it's going to end up going in and Luka and Irving are telling me on the bench to take the next shot.”he says.
The series of victories – six in a row, ten in eleven matches – of the Texans can thus remain alive. Everything is going well with the Mavericks.
“This group is united, has confidence. This confidence was tested at the end of the match with Exum,” Jason Kidd book. “He had good shots and no one said anything, everyone just wanted him to make his shots. We all had confidence in this last shoot. That's the beauty of this team: if the ball leaves the hands of Doncic and Irving, someone is going to make the difference. »
