Kyrie Irving gave the Dallas crowd a shot of electricity Monday night, and he did it with one of those shots that makes a defender disappear from the highlight reel.
With the Mavericks hosting the Indiana Pacers at American Airlines Center on November 9, Irving buried a vicious stepback 3-pointer over Kelly Oubre Jr. after shaking him off the dribble. The play came during Irving’s first back-to-back of the year, a detail coach Dusty May had already highlighted before tipoff when he called the guard a “psycho competitor.”
By halftime, Indiana had grabbed a 66-55 lead, but Irving had already piled up 19 points in 15 minutes while knocking down 4 of 6 from deep. Cooper Flagg added 15 for Dallas as the Mavericks tried to chase their seventh win of the season.
Dallas entered the night having won five of its previous seven games. In that stretch, Flagg led the team in scoring three times and Irving did it twice. Flagg also paced the club in assists four times, while Morez Johnson Jr. had led the team in rebounding twice over the last two games.
May had praised Johnson Jr.’s toughness before the game, but the rookie was unavailable with a left shin/tibia contusion, leaving Dallas without a key piece up front.
Still, the Mavericks kept pushing as they tried to defend their 4-2 home mark on a crowded sports night in Dallas. Irving, Flagg, PJ Washington and the rest of the group stayed in the fight, but Indiana kept answering, including a big third-quarter burst from Pascal Siakam, who had 26 points by that point. Without Johnson Jr., Dallas had no clean answer for him as the game continued to unfold.
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Mavericks Backcourt Problem Just Got Harder To Ignore
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De Larrea has already missed six straight games, and the delay in his return only adds to the uncertainty around a group that was already thin. For a team trying to manage its guard minutes carefully, the longer this lingers the more the Mavericks have to rely on patchwork solutions, at least until there is clearer news on when he can get back into the mix. [Read more 🡒]
Mavericks Guard Shakeup Is Creating An Early Rotation Battle
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Walter Clayton Jr. has also entered the conversation as a useful ball-moving option, giving the Mavericks another guard to consider as they evaluate roles and lineups. With Dusty May continuing to experiment, this has become more than a temporary patch job, it is an early rotation battle that could shape how the backcourt settles once the team gets deeper into the schedule. [Read more 🡒]