DALLAS — It takes time, but often impatience wins out. 

The Mavericks have slumped since trading for Kyrie Irving. And the pairing of Luka Doncic and Irving hasn't been nearly as seamless as people initially thought. But few things in life go exactly according to plan. After the Mavericks dropped another game, this time to the Indiana Pacers, Irving finally admitted where his biggest challenge resides. And hint, the challenge isn't external. 

After the loss to the Pacers, Irving admitted that the challenge that's haunted him — the one that he's wrestled with — is found in himself and the pressure he places on his shoulders to usher success to Dallas. 

"For me personally, I just want to play well," Irving said then. "I just haven't played with the fluidity of my game, and just complimenting others and doing the little things to get the win."

Integrating players within a team takes time. Yes, most teams run the same schemes offensively, and the game is more uniform than ever before, but players still need to learn how to win with each other. 

With Doncic and Irving, they haven't reached that threshold yet. And that is ok. People forget the big-three Miami Heat started their first year together as a .500 team. Doncic and Irving are being asked to blend their games together in a matter of weeks. It's a tall task. 

Irving contextualized this difficulty as well following the disappointing loss to Indiana. 

"I'm human. I would love to play well, every single night I was just texting with my dad: My biggest fan, one of my harshest critics," he said. "But he's always gonna keep it honest, and I appreciate that. He's been watching me play for a long time, and he just told me to stay aggressive, and he looked like I was overthinking out there. And I was just telling him that we have new lineups. I'm playing with new guys out there. It's an adjustment period.

"As much as I would love to play well, it doesn't happen as often as you would like, but I think moving forward, when I can ease kind of my own burdens or overthinking, I think things will naturally flow."

That time will come when Doncic and Irving sort out their end-of-game bugaboos and blunders. Both are too talented not to figure it out. They should be the least of the Mavericks' worries. Head coach Jason Kidd still needs to figure out how to get his team to put together defensive stops (that trend seems to be getting worryingly worse as time progresses). 

Until then, all Irving and Doncic can do is continue to learn from each other and lean on their generational skill to string some quality games together. 

"Usually these learning curves and learning moments happen in preseason, but it’s happening now," Irving said. "It puts a glaring eye on what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong, easy to criticize but for us, I just got to focus on being the best that I can be. I got to focus on showing up, not just for Luka [Doncic], but for my teammates.”

Irving would add: "I've been in situations in this league. Some have been failures, and some have been successes, but over the last few years, I've made it a goal of mine to just be stronger mentally, especially dealing with the rigors of this mentally, physically, and emotionally. It'll come… It'll come."

Feature image via Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports.