‘We Have Good Players’: Naji Marshall, Zaccharie Risacher Start As Dallas Mavericks Host San Antonio Spurs Without Kyrie Irving, Cooper Flagg

DALLAS — Naji Marshall and Zaccharie Risacher will start for the Dallas Mavericks in Saturday night’s home opener against the San Antonio Spurs, with Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg among six players ruled out. Max Christie, P.J. Washington, and Daniel Gafford round out the starting five.

In Friday’s 121-105 win at Indiana, Dallas started Irving, Christie, Flagg, Washington, and Gafford. Marshall takes Irving’s spot in the backcourt, and Risacher steps in for Flagg at forward after both came off the bench in the first two games.

Along with Irving (left knee injury management) and Flagg (left shoulder sprain), Dallas is without Santi Aldama (right knee surgery), Tarik Biberović (right heel bursitis), Dereck Lively II (right foot surgery), and Caleb Martin (right thumb sprain). Tip-off is 7 p.m. CT at American Airlines Center on the second night of a back-to-back.

Mavericks coach Dusty May said before the game that Dallas is focused on who is playing rather than who is missing. Gafford had 4 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks in 14:36 at Indiana, and May started with the players he has.

“You figure it out. I mean, we have good players. I mean, I’m very, very confident with the guys that you see. I thought Max played well last night. Zacch is getting better. The shots are going to drop for him, but he’s impacting the game in other ways. I thought Gaff had as productive 14 or 15 minutes, whatever he played last night, as he could have been,” May said. “I thought his rim presence was huge. Sometimes the stat sheet lies to you because Gaff blocked a couple shots, which typically makes them less aggressive at the rim. And then there were a couple rebounds that Indiana was going to get, and he just gets a fingertip on them, and then somebody else comes up with it.”

Naji Marshall And Zaccharie Risacher Move Into The Starting Five

Marshall started the second half Friday after Flagg left with a left shoulder injury and finished with 15 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals in 33:21. He committed 2 turnovers, and ball security was where he made his biggest jump, May said.

“I thought last night he did a little bit of everything. The area he made the biggest jump is he took care of the basketball better, but he was in the fight for rebounds and loose basketballs. And I thought his defensive energy, his transition defense, they all improved over the last week drastically,” May explained. “Offensively, we’re very, very comfortable with the ball in his hands. He’s one of the guys on our team that can get in the paint without any help. And I thought last night he looked like a veteran quarterback in the pocket. He didn’t look like a young guy in the pocket. He looked like a veteran, and he made a lot of really good plays for us.”

Risacher, the first overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, scored all 11 of his points in the first half at Indiana and finished with 6 rebounds and 3 blocks in 31:46. After the opener at Houston, May said, the staff gave him a clear picture of what it needed.

“With Zacch, he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. And sometimes we want to see you more before we constrain you or before we want you to do this or that. We want to evaluate you to see. Because sometimes guys can do more than they’ve needed to in the past, sometimes because of their situation,” May said. “So I think after Houston, we painted a real clear picture of what we needed him to do, and he’s been very, very receptive. And he was really close to having as good of a stat line as his impact on the game.”

Who Was Cleared After A Day Of Status Changes

Christie, Risacher, Morez Johnson Jr., and Jett Howard are all available after each was listed as questionable or doubtful on at least one report Saturday. Howard’s injury is now listed as a right calf strain after earlier reports described it as right calf tightness and soreness.

May ran through the injury list before tip-off, when Howard was still a game-time decision. Johnson’s restriction is a medical staff call, May said, and the rookie has been on one every game this season.

“Coop had an MRI performed. He has a left shoulder sprain. Kyrie will be out tonight with injury management, with it being the second night of a back-to-back. Caleb Martin is still out with a sprained thumb. Jett Howard has improved his calf. He’ll be a game-time decision,” May said. “Tarik will be out for the same lower leg injury. Santi’s making progress, but he’ll still be out. Morez will be on a minute restriction, but he is available at a limited amount. And D-Live has the same status. He’s just continuing his rehab process.”

Christie, listed with a right shin contusion all day, played a team-high 37:52 at Indiana and scored 16 points. At Friday’s shootaround, he said Dallas cannot write off early losses as a product of the calendar.

“I think honestly, although we lost, there’s a lot of positive we took away from it. I think the fight that we had, obviously our second quarter was the worst part of the game, and so we won the last two quarters, we won the third and the fourth quarter, so that’s a positive for us,” Christie said. “And so we’re just trying to build on that. We understand, obviously, it’s early, but we still need to come out with a level of urgency. We don’t want to lose a bunch of games and chalk it up to early in the season. So we want to try and win these games.”

Why Kyrie Irving Is Sitting

Irving scored 24 points in 24:55 at Indiana on a minutes restriction, his second game since tearing his left ACL in March 2025. He moved from questionable to doubtful on Saturday’s reports before Dallas ruled him out, and May said nothing was decided in advance.

“It was more, he’s ready to play at Indiana. Let’s play that and let’s not make any decisions in advance. Let’s just take this one day at a time and plan accordingly,” May said. “But it was several conversations, and there wasn’t one thing that tilted it one way or the other.”

An MRI on Saturday revealed a mild left shoulder sprain for Flagg, who will be re-evaluated next week.

What The Mavericks Face In San Antonio

The Spurs went 62-20 last season, won the Western Conference, and lost to the New York Knicks in five games in the NBA Finals. May called Victor Wembanyama, the first overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, a player no one outside the NBA and the French league has had to plan for.

“No, I don’t think anyone outside of the NBA and the French league has. He’s one of one. But no, I mean, obviously the NBA has a lot of guys like him that are just the upper 0.1% at what they do. So it’s going to be a heck of a challenge,” May said. “I’ve seen him work out up close. It’s impressive how much he puts into his body, his game, his mind, all of it. So it’s going to be a fun challenge.”

After the Spurs game, the Mavericks visit the Miami Heat on Monday.