‘Calming Us Down’: Dusty May, Daniel Gafford Describe What Dallas Mavericks Missed Without Kyrie Irving

DALLAS — Kyrie Irving sat out Monday night with what the Dallas Mavericks listed as left knee injury management, and Dallas lost 115-100 to a Sacramento Kings team that arrived at American Airlines Center without a win.

Irving had averaged 21.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 4.8 assists across five games, shooting 52.7% from the field and 39.0% from three. He had made all 13 of his free-throw attempts.

Dallas is 4-1 this season with Irving in the lineup and 0-2 without him. The other game he missed was a 122-106 home loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Oct. 24. Irving tore the ACL in his left knee in March 2025.

Sacramento made runs Monday that Dallas could not answer, and Mavericks coach Dusty May said that is one area Irving handles.

“He does so much for us in making big shots and calming us down. We haven’t been able to answer runs very well. That’s one area that he does,” May said. “But when one of your guys is out and another one just has an off night, you just, you got to have some other guys step up, and making shots is part of that. And they just didn’t drop tonight.”

After the Mavericks cut the deficit to 94-87 with 5:59 left, the Kings scored 18 of the next 24 points. Dallas did not get closer than 8 the rest of the way.

Everybody has to take the next step without the Mavericks’ star players on the floor, center Daniel Gafford said.

“We definitely missed him, 100%. He has a lot of gravity when he’s on the floor,” Gafford said. “He makes everyone’s jobs a little bit more easy. But whenever he’s not on the floor, everybody knows that it’s the next man up. Everybody has to take that next step and find ways to just make an impact without our star players on the floor.”

Dallas Mavericks Lose Max Christie From A Short-Handed Backcourt

The Mavericks were already without guard Sergio De Larrea, who has a right knee sprain. Starting guard Max Christie went down midway through the second quarter and did not return because of a right hip injury.

Walter Clayton Jr. took Christie’s spot to start the second half and scored 20 points off the bench. Marcus Sasser played 19 minutes, 23 seconds and scored 4 points, and Naji Marshall handed out 7 assists.

Cooper Flagg played 39 minutes, 33 seconds and finished with 17 points and 6 assists. He also turned the ball over 6 times and shot 3-of-19.

Dallas ran 44 pick-and-roll ball-handler possessions, including passes out of them, and scored 46 points on them, according to play-type tracking data reviewed by Dallas Sports Journal. Sacramento ran 31.

Three Sacramento guards topped 20 points. Darius Acuff Jr. scored 25, Malik Monk had 24 off the bench, and Zach LaVine added 23. Dallas’ guards were getting killed on some of Sacramento’s screens, Gafford said.

“Like I said, just they were comfortable. They were getting pretty much whatever they wanted. They were getting downhill,” Gafford explained. “Our guards were getting killed on some of the screens. So some of the communication kind of fell on our shoulders, like the big shoulders, trying to get them over those screens.”

Walter Clayton Jr. Leans On Lessons From Irving

Irving has been giving Clayton bits and pieces day by day rather than everything at once. The lessons range from how he takes care of himself to the mental side of the game.

“Just a lot, just from a day-to-day standpoint. How he takes care of himself, how he works, and then the mental aspect, too,” Clayton said. “I think he’s been giving me, like, little, he don’t want to throw everything at me at one time. So he’s been giving me, like, little bits and pieces day by day. So it’s definitely great having him, and I’ve been learning a lot.”

During games, Irving will tell Clayton when he could have rejected a screen. Irving is big on a next-play mentality.

“Just seeing the game, there might be a point where he feels like I could have rejected a screen. He’ll just get in my ear, let me know about that,” Clayton explained. “And then the main thing really is just don’t get down on myself. Whenever something bad happens, move on to the next play. He’s big on next-play mentality. So that’s something he’s been preaching to me a lot.”

The Mavericks had not announced Irving’s status for Wednesday’s game at San Antonio as of Monday night. Tip-off at Frost Bank Center is set for 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.