Mavericks star Kyrie Irving’s eye-opening message to Dereck Lively II amid Thunder’s Hack-a-Shaq approach

At first, Lively was running away from the Thunder player trying to foul him.

Video via Jo on X (formerly Twitter):

Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd revealed that Kyrie Irving told Lively to embrace the challenge.

“Yeah, I thought he did a great job,” Kidd said of how Lively responded to the Thunder’s strategy. “I thought Kai (Kyrie Irving) did a great job of talking to him on the bench, ‘don’t run, just take the foul. Go make the free throws.’ That I think helped with being comfortable. I think for a young man to be in that situation is great. As a rookie to be able to step up and make the free throws… Even better, if he didn’t make it, we were able to rely on each other on the defensive end to get stops.

“So I thought no matter what happened at the free throw line the guys were in a great place on the defensive end.”

I asked Kyrie about Kidd’s comments. Irving wanted to know exactly what Kidd said and what the reporters saw unfold on the floor with Lively.

Here is the entire conversation along with Irving’s comments on what he told Lively:

“I actually didn’t see him running around until after, I didn’t see the clip until after the game,” Irving said. “We came back to the bench and I was just like ‘you don’t have to do all that. Just let them foul you. Accept it, take it as a compliment and go up there and knock down your free throws. We believe in you. We know you put in a lot of reps.’ Although he is a rookie, I think going up there he showed a lot of poise… Whether he makes or miss I feel like it’s a good opportunity for us.

“Shows where we are as a team, especially in the half-court when we’re playing in transition… I’m talking about the respect from OKC. They don’t want us to play in half-court. So they go to the Hack-a-Dereck Lively. It worked out in our favor tonight. Just wanted him to go up to that line and shoot confidently.”

Dereck Lively II stepped up to the challenge in Mavericks’ victory

Lively played well on Saturday. He scored 12 points off the bench. Eight of those points came via free throws. 8-12 is not the best free throw shooting performance ever, but it was quite impressive for a center who hovered around the 50 percent mark during the regular season.

He also went 4-4 from the free throw line during the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Those shots proved to be crucial in the win, as the Mavericks won by four points. Dallas would have needed multiple extra defensive stops had Lively missed the aforementioned free throw attempts.

At just 20 years old, Lively accepted Irving’s challenge and got the job done.