Returning Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving scored 22 points in his first NBA game this season for refusing to receive the vaccine once morest Corona, contributing to his team’s victory over the Indiana Pacers 129-121.
Irving’s return was just one highlight of an evening that saw the Dallas Mavericks beat the Golden State Warriors 99-82, in a perfect gift for Dirk Nowitzki’s No. 41 shirt.
In Indianapolis, all eyes were on Irving, who missed the first 35 games of the season, playing less than 32 minutes and scoring 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter to help Brooklyn come back from a 19-point delay in the third quarter.
“It was amazing”
“Man, that was amazing,” the player said in an on-court interview.
Irving is still not eligible to play matches in Brooklyn, due to the mandatory vaccination in New York. He was also banned from matches in Madison Square Garden and Toronto, and the Nets waited until this month to make the decision to use Irving on the field in part.
“We’ve been on a tour to sign a bunch of (contracted players) for 10 days, so when we have someone who can play for us, what’s the difference between 10 days and a guy who can play part-time,” said Nets coach Steve Nash, describing it as an opportunity to “use a resource we had that we didn’t have.” We use it.”
Irving’s return came at an appropriate time for the Nets, who have 24 wins and 12 defeats, who have lost their last three games to fall behind the Chicago Bulls at the top of the Eastern Conference (25-10).
Kevin Durant was the best scorer for the Nets with 39 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, while James Harden added 18 points, six assists and five rebounds.
A first look this season at the Nets’ “Big Three” between Irving, Durant and Harden may be encouraging, but Irving will not be available for the next two games once morest the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday and the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.
“This situation we are in is not ideal,” Irving said. But we will fight and do everything we can to stay together.”
Mavericks drops the leader
Elsewhere, the Mavericks’ victory over the Warriors marked the start of an emotional night in Dallas, as former German star Nowitzki, who led the team to the league title in 2011, became the fourth player to also have his shirt pulled with the club.
Nowitzki played all 21 of his league seasons in Dallas, and was named Player of the Season as well as Player of the Year at the Finals. He is ranked sixth in the list of historical scorers in the league with 31,560 points in his career, and paved the way for European players such as Greek Yannis Antetokounmpo and Slovenian star Luka Doncic in Dallas.
Doncic scored 26 points, contributing to his team’s fourth consecutive victory, with Stephen Curry failing to return his team, scoring only 14 points.
Corrie was unable to score more than 5 shots out of 19, including one of nine three-way attempts, as his scoring rate fell to 37.9 percent in the last 15 matches.
“Everyone is throwing everything at him,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. I think he was under a little pressure this evening.”
“I think we kind of ran out of steam in the fourth quarter,” Kerr added.
In other games, the Denver Nuggets fell to the Utah Jazz 109-115, and the Boston Celtics fell to the San Antonio Spurs 97-99.
