After beating Brooklyn on Sunday Mavericks were not sure what Kyrie Irving will play Monday in Game 2, according to Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News (via Twitter).
“From the beginning, it was more or less, “Let’s play this game and see where we are tomorrow.”– said the head coach Dusty May. “See where we are when we wake up, see how our body feels, talk to the medical staff about a scientific approach to it, and then we’ll make a decision. It’s much more fluid on the second day of a back-to-back.”
Irving, who missed all of last season while recovering from a torn ACL, is not listed on Monday’s pregame injury report, according to Curtis (Link to Twitter), and May confirmed to reporters that the nine-time All-Star will be active.
“Very encouraging – his body reacted well” May said (Link to Twitter via Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com).
Here’s more on the Mavs:
- Forward Saint Aldama also cleared to play against the Pacers after logging 15 minutes on Sunday and making his season debut on Friday, writes Grant Offset of the Dallas Sports Journal. Aldama, whose debut was delayed due to surgery on his right knee, admitted it took him longer than expected to recover from that injury. May said Aldama is one of the “few” players on the roster whose playing time isn’t set in stone. “But based on what the game needs, I think on nights when we’re struggling to score, we haven’t found any offensive rhythm” May said,I think he’s going to play more minutes than he’s going to play in games that maybe we press on offense and our high-level defensemen are involved in the play and the flow on offense. So for a while, we can look at these guys’ minutes on a game-by-game, quarter-by-quarter basis. And this… is not easy for them. It’s not easy for us. But since we are still learning our team, it is necessary.”
- Lottery selection Morez Johnson Jr battled shin splints in training camp and recently said he got through the injury. But the 20-year-old big man suffered a left shin contusion Sunday and was ruled out of Monday’s game, Curtis tweets.
- After Sunday’s game, May explained why he started Caleb Martin late on the wing according to Offset. “We’ve been messing around with different guys in this place” May said in part.”And we just felt like we were with our team, especially on nights when Kyrie doesn’t play, and we don’t know exactly when that’s going to be. We thought Caleb gave us the best chance to be elite defensively and in terms of toughness, and we also felt the other four guys were high-scoring. We needed someone to give up and unify the group while still being a threat.”
- New Balance, which is sponsoring Cooper Flaggis now the official footwear and apparel partner of Dallas, according to a team press release (Link to Twitter via Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News). Maus called the agreement a multi-year pact.