‘Challenge His Catches’: Dusty May Lays Out Dallas Mavericks’ Plan For Houston Rockets’ Kevin Durant
HOUSTON — Dallas Mavericks coach Dusty May wants Kevin Durant taking tough shots and fighting for his catches, May said Wednesday at Toyota Center before Dallas opened its season against the Houston Rockets.
Tip-off comes at 7:30 p.m. CT. The game is May’s first as an NBA head coach. He spent the previous two seasons at Michigan, winning the national title in April.
Durant has to work on the other end of the floor too, in May’s plan.
“Just forcing him to take tough shots, obviously,” May said. “One of the greatest scorers to ever lace ’em up. [He’s] gonna score points, but we just gotta challenge his catches. We gotta make it tough on him. We gotta stop fouling jump shooters and just make him work for every basket.”
“And then on the other hand, we gotta make sure he exerts some energy on the defensive end as well,” May continued.
Durant entered the season fifth on the NBA’s career scoring list. In his first season with Houston, he averaged 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists and made the All-NBA Second Team. The Rockets acquired him from the Phoenix Suns in a deal agreed to in June 2025.
Kevin Durant And The Houston Rockets In Macao
Durant played in the Rockets’ 135-117 win over Dallas on Oct. 9, the first of two exhibition games between the teams in Macao. Two days later, Rockets coach Ime Udoka held out Durant, Fred VanVleet, and Alperen Şengün, and Dallas won 132-115.
Kyrie Irving missed the first game in Macao and played in the second. May said Dallas and Houston went into each Macao game with different objectives.
“It just probably saves a little bit of time in film study as you familiarize yourself with their roster, with their rotations, with their sets and things like that,” May explained. “I don’t think either team was who they are in the exhibition season. We had different objectives each game. And obviously when Kyrie played, KD and Fred sat out. And so it’s two completely different teams.”
Irving and Durant were teammates with the Brooklyn Nets from 2019 until both were traded in February 2023. Wednesday is Irving’s first regular-season game since he tore the ACL in his left knee on March 3, 2025.
Dallas Mavericks Prepare For Houston Rockets’ Switching Defense
Houston switches often on defense. May said Dallas’ answer comes down to execution and to the way the Mavericks run their own actions.
“We have our concepts [on] how we wanna attack switching defense, and so it comes down to execution, to recognizing matchups, actions, and how do we confuse their switches with the way we do it,” May said. “So luckily we switched, so we’re probably more familiar than we would be otherwise. But they do it well, so it’s not simple.”
Cooper Flagg faced Durant four times as a rookie and averaged 18.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 4.0 assists in those games. Durant said last season that Flagg will be “considered one of the best of all-time,” according to NBA.com.
Houston went 52-30 last season. Durant missed Game 1 of the Rockets’ first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers with a bruised right knee, and Los Angeles won the series in six games.
The Mavericks and Rockets meet three more times this season. Houston plays at American Airlines Center on Oct. 30, hosts Dallas on Jan. 1, and returns to Dallas on Jan. 31.
