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The Dallas Mavericks star guard Kyrie Irving made clear that building trust in late-game situations will be pivotal for a team that’s had many recent close games.

“Down the stretch is really where we have to build that trust. As well as I’ve been playing in the fourth quarter throughout this season, I don’t want us to rely just on that. I’m going to show up, but at the same time, I just want my teammates to be aggressive as well, and they make my job a lot easier.

“If I can start off the second half the same way we started off today, just being very aggressive, I feel we put ourselves in a great position every single game we play… ”

What have they done to build trust?

“We had some real conversations, grown-up conversations, mature conversations, that I can honestly say that in my 12 years or 11 years, on every team, we haven’t had those direct conversations sometimes… “