MACAO — Kyrie Irving will play Sunday when the Dallas Mavericks face the Houston Rockets at The Venetian Arena, Mavericks coach Dusty May said before tip-off. It will be his first game since he tore the ACL in his left knee against the Sacramento Kings on March 3, 2025.
May opened his pregame availability with the injury report. It was essentially the same as Friday’s, he said, with two changes. Dallas is resting Morez Johnson Jr., and Irving is in the lineup.
Irving sat out Friday’s 135-117 preseason loss to Houston, listed for left knee rest. On Thursday, May said Irving would play in only one of the two games in Macao, and he named Sunday before Friday’s tip-off.
Kyrie Irving Returns With Mavericks Setting Minute Range
Irving had surgery on the knee on March 26, 2025. A calf strain in December set his recovery back by about eight weeks, and in February the Mavericks ruled him out for all of 2025-26. Dallas went 26-56 without him.
The Mavericks cleared Irving without restrictions before the trip. May, hired in June, had never coached him before this fall.
“Obviously, I’ve watched him for years, but the only thing that I can go on is his practice, and he’s played well, so there’d be no limitations other than just a minute count,” May said. “And we want to attack that without emotion, and so we’ve got a range and we’re gonna play it by ear, but also he’s going to listen to his body.”
“But like I said, in practice, if I didn’t know that he missed last year, I wouldn’t be able to tell based on how he’s worked in preseason camp,” May continued.
Irving averaged 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.6 assists in 50 games in 2024-25. He shot 47.3% from the field, 40.1% from 3-point range, and 91.6% from the free-throw line in 36.1 minutes per game. That season, he was selected to his ninth All-Star Game. The first overall pick in 2011 won an NBA championship in 2016, and Dallas re-signed him in July 2025.
Dusty May Says Kyrie Irving, Cooper Flagg Will Make Teammates Better
Irving and Cooper Flagg have not played a game together. Flagg, the first overall pick in 2025 and the 2025-26 Rookie of the Year, scored 17 of his 19 points in the second quarter Friday and sat the entire second half. Without Irving last season, Dallas made 11.0 3-pointers per game, which ranked 29th in the league.
“I certainly have excitement just because I think guys like he and Coop, their gravity, the leverage they provide makes everyone else exponentially better,” May said. “I mean, you can’t really quantify exact percentages, but I think every single player on our roster, when they’re on the floor with those guys, they have better opportunities, more spacing, things like that. So it’s obviously very important.”
“I kind of always expect guys, when they come back from long injuries, to not play very well just because of rhythm and things like that,” May added. “And so more than anything else, it’s just getting him back in the flow and the rhythm without looking at it. Did he play well or play poorly? I mean, I think him playing even poorly for his standards is probably pretty well.”
Flagg had 3 assists in 19:02 on Friday. He averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists in 70 games as a rookie.
Dusty May Sees No Ball-Handling Conflict With Kyrie Irving, Cooper Flagg
“I don’t think it impacts it at all other than just, Coop is going to have the ball in his hands,” May explained. “Kyrie is very proficient on and off the ball. Neither one of them are ball-dominant guys. That’s the thing when you watch Coop play two nights ago, his playmaking out of the ball screens, he made the correct reads time and time again.”
“And I just envision him when we have our full roster and he’s able to have even more weapons beside him, then he’ll be even more effective,” May continued. “And like I said, I just think guys like that make each other better versus worrying about on and off the ball, things like that. So we look at it as a very positive thing, having two high, high level playmakers on the court at the same time.”
Sunday’s game tips off at 5 a.m. CT on NBA TV. Dallas returns home for preseason games Oct. 14 and Oct. 16 and opens the regular season Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. CT in Houston.
