Despite the Dallas Mavericks’ growing injury report, they have found ways to win their past two games – both with ease – and look to make it three in a row when they travel to Memphis to take on a depleted Grizzlies team.
Already without Josh Green, Grant Williams and Maxi Kleber, the Mavericks are now without second-leading scorer Kyrie Irving, who averages 23 points per game. Irving, was forced to exit Friday’s win over the Trail Blazers after suffering a heel contusion when teammate Dwight Powell fell hard on Irving’s right leg.
Luckily for Dallas, it seems a crisis has been averted as it looks like Irving won’t miss significant time.
For a banged-up Mavericks team, it doesn’t hurt to have Luka Doncic, who looks to extend his sizzling offensive stretch.
In the Mavericks’ past two victories over Utah and Portland, Doncic is averaging 36 points, eight rebounds and 10.5 assists, including a first-half triple double in the win against the Jazz.
“I think he’s had a lot of fun this season,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said about Doncic. “He’s competing, he’s having fun and his energy is extremely high.”
With Irving injured, Kidd and Dallas looked for someone to complement Doncic’s scoring Friday in Portland. They got just that, and from an unexpected source – Dante Exum.
In just his second start of the season, Exum poured in 23 points on 9-for-15 shooting from the field, adding seven assists and six rebounds. The scoring outburst was Exum’s highest point tally since January 2020, when he scored a career-best 28 as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Exum, a lottery pick by the Jazz in 2014, had been out of the NBA since the 2020-21 season before being signed by Dallas in July.
“I have had the NBA experience before,” Exum said. “But coming to a new team, learning to play with Kyrie, Luka, all new guys I have never played with, so it’s all about getting comfortable. I’m hitting my stride right now.”
As for Memphis, its season through 21 games has had a lackluster feel, and running into one of the hottest players in the league in Doncic won’t help.
However, every game that passes is one closer to the return of Ja Morant. The Grizzlies All-Star has four games remaining until he is eligible to return from a 25-game suspension that league commissioner Adam Silver handed down in June for “conduct detrimental to the league.”
Morant’s return can’t come soon enough for a Memphis team that is off to its worst start since Morant’s rookie season in 2019. Its most recent defeat came at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves, a 127-103 rout Friday, in which Memphis was outrebounded 63-37 by Minnesota.
“It was a challenge all night,” Memphis head coach Taylor Jenkins said. “We’ve got to be extremely better. They came in and punk’d us two games in a row now.”
To add to their rebounding struggles, the Grizzlies’ difficulties on the offensive end have been magnified in Morant’s absence. Entering Monday, Memphis ranked second-to-last in the league in scoring.
A lone bright spot for the Grizzlies has been the career year of fourth-year player Desmond Bane. At 24.6 points per game, Bane leads Memphis’ scoring on the season, and tallied a career-high 49 points in a win over Detroit last Wednesday.
“I’ve been trying to become a more complete player,” Bane said. “Being able to play-make and score from all areas of the court. That wins games.”
–Field Level Media