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Kyrie Takes Jab at Hornets Celebrating Win Over Mavs

Charlotte played spoiler over the weekend.

The Dallas Mavericks had a great opportunity to win a couple of games over the weekend against the Charlotte Hornets and make up some ground in the Western Conference standings. Instead, they dropped not one, but BOTH games to a team that has 51 losses and is currently 4th in the draft lottery.

With the two-game sweep, Charlotte dropped Dallas out of the play-in tournament, sitting a full game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for 10th place. The west is extremely tight as only four games separate the 4th-place Suns and the 11th-place Mavs. So losing these two games is a bit of a gut punch for Dallas and Kyrie Irving knows it. 

During his postgame press conference, he wasn't shy about expressing his disappointment and even took a subtle jab at the Hornets' celebration.

"Losing in basketball is very frustrating, especially when we have as talented a group as we do. We have the talent, but we just have to be able to perform and be able to execute the details that we go over in the game plan. This is the second game that we’ve played against Charlotte, and these are dangerous games in the season because we’re obviously playing for something, and they’re not playing for anything. You can tell how they celebrated after the game, the home crowd was a little surprised too because they haven’t had a consistent flow throughout the season, but when they beat us, it’s a big deal. I’ve realized that being in the league, anytime a team goes against me specifically, but now also Luka (Doncic) or Dallas Mavericks, or whoever we’re playing where there’s a great player on the opposing team, the other team wants to beat them. It’s a little personal, and we’ve got to play with a toughness that we get ready to go to war or battle with who we’re going against. It’s a learning experience for all of us, but I think over the last few games, it’s definitely been frustrating from that aspect. We know what we’re going into, but we’re just not performing.”

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