Last-minute Changes, Reports and News ahead of Mavericks vs Nets

Friday night against Utah, a rookie came off the Dallas bench and grabbed 17 boards in 24 minutes. It was a career high for Marez Johnson Jr. and Dallas was 20 points better with him on the floor. And after the game, Dusty May didn't hide what he thought. This is the guy I think we'll see regularly. Now, look at the other side of the bench. Max Christie started each of Dallas' first seven games this season. He's hurt his hip. He missed the game. And tonight, the Mavericks play a Brooklyn team on the second night of a back-to-back. We're going to break down the latest reports, changes, news, and rumors ahead of the game, including the latest injury reports and how Dusty May is planning to change his rotation for the game tonight. Now, the change started before Friday. Christie left the Sacramento game early with a hip injury, sat out in San Antonio, then came off of the bench on Friday for the first time this season. And the on and off numbers explain why Dusty May was ready to move him. Dallas has been 36.9 points per 100 possessions worse. With Christie on the floor, Caleb Martin got the start on Friday, and he played only 11 minutes. The rookie behind him played 24, and the box score made the choice pretty clear. Marez is only 20 years old, obviously a rookie out of Michigan, and realistically, he's probably the answer going forward. In the loss to Sacramento, he made five of his shots for 13 points in 17 minutes, and Dusty May also said that he's past the shin issue that he's been dealing with and at the end of the day his minutes are going to continue to ramp up. We saw that and it really paid off in last game. Then there's Santiago, he of course had right knee surgery back in March and Friday was his first game of the season. You add in Daniel Gafford and all of a sudden now the team is starting to shape up and it might not include Max Christie at that starting shooting guard spot. Let's dive into the injury report for tonight's game. Derek Lively is out again with his foot injury. He hasn't played in any of Dallas' games. Sergio de la Rea is out with his knee. Tarek Babrovich remains out as well. But Kyrie and Cooper Flagg are both off of the report, and that does matter because the two of them have combined for 45.3 points per game. And this is a game you have to win if you're the Dallas Mavericks. It's been an up and down season from four and two to four and four. Obviously, at this point in time, you want Sergio de la Rea back. But more importantly now, I'm curious to see how they actually implement Marez Johnson Jr.'s minutes usage going forward, especially against a pretty poor defensive team in the Brooklyn Nets. Speaking of the Brooklyn Nets, there's big reports on their side. Mikel Brown Jr., he is out. for rest, and that's one night after he scored 18 minutes, and he's been their top scorer off the bench at 12.9 minutes per game. Igor Demin, he's also out with a right leg injury, and New York Post says he's progressing, but for us, all that really matters now is that two of their top guys, or at least one of them, Mikel Brown Jr., the top bench guy, is out, and they're also traveling as they flew in from Atlanta after losing yesterday, and it's the second night of a back-to-back for a Brooklyn team that is 0-2 in back-to-backs this season. So on paper, this should be an easy win for Dallas, but this Nets team doesn't lose quietly very often, as crazy as it sounds. The Nets are 2-7, but three of those losses were by four points or fewer. They lost by four in Cleveland, one in Boston, and three against Atlanta. So I'm going to keep an eye out on as well as De'Ron Sharp. He had the first triple-double of his career recently, 12 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists. Their scoring runs through mainly Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle. So if you are the Dallas Mavericks, it's actually a pretty good matchup for Merez Johnson Jr. Because a lot of these guys are going to, I mean, you need good defense tonight if you want to take care of this team as much as it seems like an easy game on paper. And something else to note as well is that Porter is the one who hurt Dallas before. Last season, he scored 34, 28, and 26 in his first three games against the Mavericks. Now, the Mavericks did win all three. And this season, Porter has already made 31 threes in nine games. So a very interesting factor of this game that I don't think people are talking about enough is, I mean, obviously, everyone's been talking about containing Michael Porter Jr., but he's had some very big success this season in the past. And seeing what Dusty May kind of does defensively against MPJ will be very important. Now, they also have Mo Wagner and both Mo Wagner and Nolan Trier off of the bench. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens with that team. But Mavericks, simple as this, need to take care of business. And they have in the past. Dallas swept the season series last year, three games to nothing. Let's look who did damage last year. It was Anthony Davis and Klay Thompson. So you can't really use that stat as super genuine, considering both those guys are off of the team now. But also, there's obviously a lot of guys off of the team for the Brooklyn Nets as well, including guys. I mean, of course, I mean, it's a very, very different team, right? Including guys like Nick Claxton and of course, Najee Marshall as well. He's the only one of last February's top four scores still on this team. And he scored 60 games across those three games against Brooklyn. So the team has great history against the Brooklyn Nets, especially going back to last year. The biggest question will be going forward. Can they maintain that tonight? And maybe even more importantly, how did the new additions to this team match up? Because as much as this looks like an easy, it looks like, sorry, an easy game. It's not as easy as a lot of people are saying, or a lot of people may think when you look at the actual events numbers. Quick note as well, Dallas Mavericks Digest is at 26,808 subscribers right now. So if you're watching this before the tip off tonight, hit that subscribe button so we can make ourselves closer to the big goal of 27,000 and ultimately the even bigger goal of 30,000 subscribers. Now, let's dive into the shooting problem that the Mavericks have faced this season and how it could affect them tonight. Cooper Flagg, he's averaging nearly 24 a game, and almost all of it is coming from inside the arc. He's made only eight of his 37 three-point attempts this season, about 22%. Against Sacramento, he went 3-for-19 from the field. Obviously, against the Jazz was really good. He answered with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists. And surprisingly, he leads Dallas in assists at 6.4 a game. So the offense runs through him even when Kyrie's on the floor. And historically, Brooklyn's been a pretty good matchup for him. Last season, he scored 22 points on 10-of-16 shooting against them, then 27 on 10-of-17. But the big difference this year to last year is having Kyrie Irving. Kyrie is averaging 22.2 points over his last five games, but like I mentioned, his efficiency has went down. Scored 29 in San Antonio, took him 27 shots. Friday, you know, kind of had a bit of an off game, but at the end of the day, he's slowly but surely turning back into Kyrie we all know, even though his efficiency has been down. Now, as much as the eyes are going to be on Cooper Flagg, how it's going to be on Kyrie Irving, their best shooter on the roster so far has been somebody coming off of the bench. And with, Jay said a video on it yesterday, with the decision looming between who you cut to bring in Walter Keaton Jr. on a standard contract, he's been the Mavericks' best three-point shooter. He's made 11 of his 24 threes, which is about 46%. And against Sacramento, he scored 20 and made four of five threes. And right now, D'Angelo May needs every single one of those. And something else I mentioned as well, tonight is the first night of a back-to-back for the Mavericks, right? So they're at home tonight. And then of course, at home tomorrow against Indiana, where both teams are on a back-to-back, but Brooklyn is the one playing a second game tonight. And you cannot lose this game if you're the Dallas Mavericks. And this is an opportunity to win two in a row because you're going up against two poor teams. Obviously the Indiana Pacers are three and seven. Dallas have already beat them by 16. That's two home games in two nights against teams with five wins between them. You win both, and the Mavs are 7-4 heading into the rest of November, and the Mavericks have had by far the hardest schedule of any NBA team this year to start the season, so the fact that they're even above .500 is a very big positive. And we think back, I mean, the Mavs won four straight earlier on this year, 24-point win over OKC, they lost two in a row, then you beat the Jazz. At the end of the day, I am very, very confident in this team. Dallas, they're scoring 112 points a game. Brooklyn, they're giving up 114. Brooklyn is also 1-4 on the road this season. Slowly but surely, they've slowed down as well. Dallas ranks 19th in pace after ranking fourth last season. So you're going up against a team on tired legs. I think the easiest thing to do here if you're the Mavericks is to simply push the pace. And it's going to be interesting also to see where Walter Clayton factors in. Is he going to continue to get minutes over Marcus Sasser? Is he going to be the first guy off of the bench? These are all things. Obviously, the big one, Marrez Johnson Jr. Going up against a very good matchup for him, right? I think in Julius Randle and especially Michael Porter Jr. Where will Marrez factor in there? I mean, at the end of the day here, you have Marrez. You have Santi Aldama. I think you're going to start Marrez Johnson Jr. tonight. You've got to take care of business. And this is also a huge game for Santi Aldama, who looked pretty good in his debut this year. So comment down below how you feel about this game. There's obviously a lot of stats that benefit the Mavericks, but there's a lot of other things happening, including Dusty Mays rotation decisions. Comment down below. See you guys later.