Kyrie Irving propels red-hot Mavericks past Kings

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Kyrie Irving had 25 points and 10 assists as the Dallas Mavericks beat the Sacramento Kings 122-114 on Friday night for their third straight win.

Irving played his second game In his Dallas debut, he scored 24 points Wednesday night in a road win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

Josh Green scored 17 points and Tim Hardaway Jr. added 15 as the Mavericks won for the fifth time in six games.

“We are playing fast and moving the ball,” Green said. “Playing off the ball. Really unselfish style of the game. It’s fun to play with.”

Dallas led by as many as 24 points and never trailed. The Kings cut the deficit to six points with 20 seconds remaining.

“Just being connected and understanding the roles,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said of the success.

De’Aaron Fox scored 33 points for Sacramento. The Kings were coming off back-to-back wins over the Houston Rockets.

“Yeah, we struggled from 3,” Fox said. “But I don’t think offense was a problem tonight … 114 points should be enough to win an NBA game.”

Domantas Sabonis had 18 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Kings. He leads the NBA in double-doubles with 43.

“Dallas came out and hit us in the mouth to begin the game,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “We gave up 45 points in the first quarter and that’s hard to recover from.”

Keegan Murray added 16 points, making four 3s.