The talk of the town in San Antonio on Wednesday night was the highly anticipated NBA debut of Victor Wembanyama, but while the French big man did not disappoint, Coach Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks were buoyed by the performance of their own rookie, who helped the Mavs pull out a hard-fought victory in the Texas-sized opener.
Dereck Lively II came off the bench in his first NBA game but played 30 minutes and posted a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds while making 7-of-8 attempts from the field as Dallas rallied from a halftime deficit to a 126-119 victory.
In addition Luka Doncic picked up his 58th triple double with 33 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists and Kyrie Irving had 22 points and six assists. All told, six Mavs scored in double figures with Tim Hardaway Jr. (17 points) and Josh Green (11 points) coming off the bench and Grant Williams tallying 17 points in his first game in Dallas.
After the game, Coach Kidd heaped praise on the Mavs rookie.
“I thought Dereck was great tonight,” Jason said after the win. “To come off the bench with that group and then as we showed in the last preseason game starting him, he’s been really great with both groups.”
Lively didn’t get the start, a move Coach Kidd said was designed to “protect him” from what could be a free-for-all early in the game. Shure enough, the teams combined for 47 shots in the first and players on each team picked up multiple fouls.
“It was a shootaround there in the first quarter. Both teams were scoring the ball. Victor, I think, picked up two quick fouls. So I was trying to protect Dereck that way cause we knew we knew we needed him. “As we go forward, we understand that Lively will start at some point as we go forward on this journey. He’s about the team and you saw that tonight. That’s what makes him special.”
Dallas was outscored by San Antonio 43-36 in that rapid-fire first frame. They managed to cut into the lead in the second quarter and went in at halftime down by just four points. Their performance in the second was led by Williams, who had 9 of his 17 points in that second quarter and impressed Coach Kidd with his leadership throughout the night.
“He was big. He came up with some big threes when the game was kind of going the other way,” Jason said. “His defense, making them work and then just keeping everyone together, his voice is something we haven’t had in a while. He was really good for his debut too.”
Lively was inserted into the starting five, alongside Doncic, Irving, Williams and Derrick Jones Jr., to begin the second half and the Mavs responded on both ends, outscoring San Antonio while limiting the Spurs to just 23 points in the third to take control of the game.
“Being able to start him in the second half was something we had talked about doing and he was great on both ends, being able to rebound the ball, being able to change shots, giving us second or third opportunities, and it’s not easy playing with Luka because Luka is gonna throw it and he expects you to catch it and finish, and he had some great lobs today. I was told he had the most points for a rookie coming off the bench. So a lot of good things from our rookie tonight…he didn’t act like a rookie tonight. He continued to get better.”
Though the Mavs took a five-point lead into the fourth, San Antonio quickly cut it to one and most of the quarter ended up being a back and forth battle. After entering with seven minutes to go, Wembanyama went on a run, making four straight spots and scoring 9 of the Spurs’ 12 points as they pulled even 115-115 with under four minutes to go. Coach Kidd was complimentary of the San Antonio rookie after the game.
“Victor was pretty good,” he said. “You can see the game comes easy to him. Being able to shoot it, put it on the floor, change shots or block shots, his future is very bright.”
The Spurs briefly took a 117-115 lead with 2:34 to go, but from there, Luka and Kyrie took over the game, with a little help from the rookie Lively.
A three-point play from Doncic gave Dallas a 118-117 lead with 2:19 to go. After the Spurs took the lead back with a couple free throws Kyrie buried a three to give the Mavs the lead for good. On the following San Antonio possession a block by Lively and a steal by Luka got Dallas the ball back and a layup by Kyrie layup made it 123-119. After a steal by Lively, Luka put on the finishing touches with a dagger three.
“We really have taken a lot of time this preseason to work on late game execution and I thought offensively and defensively we executed there in the last three minutes by getting stops and then on the offensive end being able to play through Luka and Ky,” Coach Kidd said. “We kept [Luka] under 35 minutes. He’s special. We all know that. What he did tonight, being able to find his teammates, helped us rebound, but I thought the stops there late, coming up with the steals and deflections were big for us on the defensive end.”
The Mavs also managed to win despite an uncharacteristically poor shooting tonight. They shot under 50 percent as a team and 32 percent from three. Winning despite that, Coach Kidd said, was a credit to their tenacity.
“We got some great looks, some wide open looks that didn’t go down, but we didn’t panic or force anything. We just stayed the course and we trusted one another,” he said. “Him and Ky got great looks tonight. We’re going to live with those looks as the season goes on. With Luka and Ky shooting 4-for-19 behind the arc, that doesn’t happen, and for us to win a game like that, that’s big.”
The Mavs are back in action on Friday night for their home opener at American Airlines Center, where they host the Brooklyn Nets. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT and the game can be seen on Bally Sports Southwest.