Nets at Mavericks: Brooklyn can’t snap losing streak

The Brooklyn Nets entered the American Airlines Center riding a three-game losing streak. Another loss would only add insult to injury. It would also push the Milwaukee Bucks one step closer to overtaking the second seed from them. The Mavericks were also desperate for a win, as they want to avoid the play-in tournament in the West at all costs.

The first half was an absolute show. Kyrie Irving asserted himself early and scored 25 points in 19 minutes. His running mate in Kevin Durant had 16 points at the half. For the Mavericks, Luka Doncic was doing Luka Doncic things. He had 19 points and connected on five threes. All his field goals came from behind the arc. It was enough to have his squad in front, but barely, leading Brooklyn 63-62.

The second half was just a continuation of this shootout between the two offensive powerhouses. The Mavericks; however, were able to capitalize on the Nets in the fourth quarter and a big part of that had to do with Kevin Durant’s second half performance. Durant only scored 4 points in the last two periods and he missed all but one of his field goals in the entire half.

His teammate, Kyrie Irving (45 PTS, 5 REBS), had a marvelous game to say the least. It wasn’t enough though to keep this desperate Nets team on the winning side of things though as Luka Doncic (24 PTS, 10 REBS, 8 ASTS) and the Dallas Mavericks stole this one to extend the Brooklyn Nets’ losing streak to four, their longest of the season.

Kyrie Irving is still hot

Kyrie Irving went ham in this game and the Mavericks did not have an answer for him all night. He followed up his 38-point masterclass with a 45-point outburst. Irving was also very efficient too, going 17-for-31. From the looks of it, Uncle Drew has now tapped in to playoff form and this is bad news for any team the Nets have left to face on their schedule. Watch out.

Nicolas Claxton and Bruce Brown are falling back into their normal roles seamlessly

It has not yet been entirely completed, but Nicolas Claxton and Bruce Brown are almost back into their normal roles for this team. Brown logged 23 minutes and had a great outing with 10 points on 5-for-8 shooting. Claxton, on the other end, logged 18 minutes and scored 2 points while grabbing 8 rebounds. He also went 1-for-1 from the field. As the postseason approaches, their minutes and production is only going to increase from here on out, but it's great to see that they're almost at that checkpoint already after returning this week.

Both Joe Harris Landry Shamet can't heat up

Joe Harris has recently been struggling coming off of the mini-series versus the Milwaukee Bucks. Their defense made it hard for him to free up and get opens looks. Landry Shamet had a great introductory game on Sunday against Milwaukee, but he went cold in that second game on Tuesday. Now on Thursday, both sharpshooters must be feeling the effects of that. Joe Harris went 2-for-6 from deep while Landry Shamet went 0-for-4. These are performances that both players are not used to, especially as of late. When they aren't hitting these shots, the team inevitably suffers because they all expect them to knock those down. Instead, Brooklyn lost their fourth game in a row after their performance in Dallas.

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