3 Mavericks Most to Blame for the Disastrous NBA Finals Collapse

The Dallas Mavericks are on the verge of getting swept in the NBA Finals by the Boston Celtics. After falling down 3-0 at home on Wednesday night, the blame game began immediately.

It is important to note that the Boston Celtics are a better team. They are deeper and more talented and were the favorites to win it all. It is not an indictment on this Mavericks team that they are losing. The way they are losing, however, has been deflating. They haven't been particularly close in any of the three games and they look severely overmatched all over the court.

The media wasted no time in blaming Luka Doncic for the Mavs' struggles but this is largely misplaced. This has certainly not been the best Doncic performance, especially on the defensive end, but he has an unsustainable large workload due to the other deficiencies on the team. Doncic has mostly been the best player on the floor during the series but it hasn't been enough. Here are three reasons why.

Kyrie Irving

Irving finally broke out in Game 3 for 35 points in 45 minutes. He was the best player for the Mavericks. So, perhaps this may sound unfair but Dallas needed a lot more from him in order to be competitive in this series.

In the first two games of the Finals, Irving shot 13/37 from the field for a total of 28 points. He shot two free throws and made zero threes. The Mavericks were -22 in his minutes.

Considering that the Mavericks are a top-heavy team that relies entirely on the Doncic-Irving duo to carry the offense, they can't afford to have this type of Kyrie performance.

In his defense, Boston is doing an incredible job guarding him. Jrue Holiday, Jaylen Brown, and Derrick White are an amazing trio of defenders. However, Irving needed to be able to create more in the first two games for Dallas to have a shot.