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

On Monday, Cooper Flagg scored 43 points and Irving hit seven of his 10 threes in a win over Indiana. Three nights later in Minnesota, they lost by nearly 40 with Kyrie putting up the worst numbers of his season. But ahead of the game tonight, we have lots of last minute news, changes, reports, and updates that we're going to dive into it. Folks, it is going to be a wild one. But let's start with what broke in Minnesota and it got really, really ugly. Dallas was down eight after the first quarter and down 15 at half. They made only 13 of its 48 threes, which is 27% while Minnesota nearly hit 50% of theirs. And the Timberwolves made 52 of its 90 shots overall. Never really had to even sweat in that game because the Mavericks, they turned it over 19 times, which led to 26 fast break points. from Minnesota including 74 points in the paint which has been a bit of a problem all season and the third quarter is when it really blew open Minnesota outscored Dallas 36 to 17 they won in the glass 50 to 38 and they had bench players going out putting up a ton of rebounds all of their big men were dominating on The glass now for Cooper Flagg. He only had 12 points, 5 of 12 shooting. LaMelo Ball was going off. Now it is just one game, so we can just burn the tape and forget about it. The Dallas Mavericks are still 7 and 5, but there are some things for that game to look out for in tonight's game because guess what? They're going to be going up against a very. good team and also one that they may have the same problems they were facing just a couple days ago. Let's start with the injury report. Derek Lively, he continues to remain out. And speaking of the injuries, having Derek Lively back could actually help a lot. He's obviously a huge body. He was a fantastic rebounder and pick and roll threat. So hopefully he comes back somewhat soon and somewhat in the future. Tarek Probrovich, he's also out with a heel injury Sergio de la Rea is out with his knee sprain now. Most notable here is that Max Christie, he's questionable with a left ankle sprain. He's obviously had kind of a disastrous season thus far. So him being questionable, it isn't the end of the world, but it definitely is interesting to keep an eye on. And then Merez Johnson Jr. and Caleb Martin are both going to be good to go. And we know with Lively out, Daniel Gafford's been the one holding down the paint. Him and Merez Johnson Jr. Now, Merez had nine rebounds against Brooklyn, but then went over four in Minnesota from the field. So he's been up and down. He's a rookie. I think he's going to be very, very solid. But one thing that was interesting was that Toby Lawal actually got some run on Thursday, grabbing five offensive rebounds in 12 minutes, which is kind of shocking. So don't be surprised if Toby Lawal gets some more run tonight. On the other side, the big name is Evan Mobley. He's day-to-day with a toe injury. He sat out Friday's loss in Miami. And if he plays, he's averaged over 20 points a game in his five career meetings against Dallas. And he hasn't really looked like himself lately. He's been a little bit injured. His points per game are going down, but we're going up against a Cavs team that has a Jared Allen, Evan Mobley front court with basically just Daniel Gafford and the potential of Merez Johnson Jr. going up there to stop it. Because Allen averages nearly... You know, 13 rebounds a game in his four meetings throughout his career with Dallas or against Dallas. Mobley is very, very good. 7.3 rebounds a game on his own. But Cleveland is also without Sam Murill and Naquan Tomlin. So they're a little bit thin on the bench as well. But the biggest storyline this week is going to be how Kyrie Irving bounces back. Obviously, he came back after missing, what is it, 19 months over the past, you know, basically a year and a half with a torn ACL in his first. 10 games back, he's averaging 21.5 points, and the fit with Cooper Flagg has looked extremely, extremely good. He's making 39% of his threes on 8.2 attempts a game, and he hit seven out of 10 of his attempts on Monday. Yeah, he struggled against the Timberwolves, but that is going to happen. Now, there has been a lot of talks about the potential of Kyrie Irving being traded, and then whether or not there's motivation to move him. Folks, I'm going to put that to bed right now. They are not going to move Kyrie Irving. I feel like we have to say this every video because new reports fly every single day. They're not going to move Kyrie Irving. They're going to keep him on the team. And at the very least, Jake Fisher reports that they expect Kyrie to, you know, the talks to continue until February 11th. But if you're the Dallas Mavericks, let me tell you something. You are not. It is not happening and people need to stop talking about it. He could have 10 horrible games in a row. You're keeping Kyrie Irving to develop alongside or to help develop Cooper flag and also get this team continuing to win games. Folks, they're seven and five. They're in a very good spot. And obviously seeing how he does tonight, it's going to be absolutely massive, a big bounce back game for him. He's a veteran. He's been here before he's done this before. I have absolutely no worry about that. I'm more worried about. The glass and seeing how the front court of the Mavericks right now is going to be kind of playing up against one of the best front courts in the NBA in Cleveland. Speaking of Cleveland, they look a lot like the team that Dallas saw twice last March. Obviously, James Harden, he's running the offense with Darius Garland gone. He leads them at 5.8 assists a game, and he's scoring about 17 points in almost 33 minutes. They, of course, also have their main score in Donovan Mitchell. He's putting up 23 points a night. And one big thing, like I keep talking about, I sound like a broken record here, is Jarrett Allen. He's shooting 65% from the field, but he's just an absolutely insane rebounder. Now, Cleveland is actually struggling pretty mightily this season. They're 6-7, three games behind Detroit. They lost two out of their last three. Their defense has actually been, contrary to popular belief, pretty bad. They're giving up 116 points per game. Well, 115.8 to be exact. And they're on the second night of a back-to-back. Now, Dallas plays a back-to-back with the second game being tomorrow. But at the end of the day, for now, Dallas has an opportunity to be really set up for a golden opportunity here to win and move yourself to eight and five. Now, there are two matchups I think worth watching here, and both showed up last season. You can see here the two games last March didn't really, they're kind of. Wild, on March 13th, Cleveland won by a ton, 138-105. You had Mitchell, Harden, Mobley dominating. But then two nights later, Dallas won by 10 points with Cooper Flagg dominating. So one of the first matchups to keep an eye on tonight is going to be Cooper Flagg versus Evan Mobley. Now, Mobley is shooting 47.9%. From three this season on four attempts a game, which is absolutely ludicrous. I mean, that's going to go down, I would assume. Now, Flagg is the one who's probably going to be guarding him. We're going to have to see how that actually goes. Or maybe, you know, Evan Mobley's going to be guarding him. I don't know exactly where the matchups are going to be. Maybe P.J. on Mobley. Regardless, we'll have to see. But if Mobley can't go, then all of a sudden Cooper Flagg's night gets a lot easier on both ends. Now, the second matchup I want to watch out for is Kyrie Irving versus James Harden. Two veteran guards who've seen basically every coverage there is. Now, Harden's shooting 39% from the field this season. He's having a pretty rough year. Kyrie Irving, he's shooting 48% or 47.9. Harden lives at the free throw line. We know how it is. But now that they don't have Daniel Gafford, they've been struggling a little bit with actual facilitation. So if you can just, you know, make James Harden work a little bit, you're without Evan Mobley, this team should be good. But in order to do that, Dallas is going to have to certainly Take care of the ball. They're turning it over 16 and a half times a game, which is pretty rough compared to the rest of the NBA right now. If you give guys like and good teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers, even though they're having a bad year, more possessions, let's say give Mitchell and Harden three or four more possessions a game, they're going to make you pay for it. And they had 20 turnovers even in its 40 point win over Brooklyn. So this is something that needs to be taken care of very, very soon. Something else to watch out for is, of course, the three-point shooting. Cleveland is shooting 37% as a team. Dallas is shooting 34%. But Dallas has been very streaky. They're coming off of a putrid three-point shooting game against the Timberwolves. So we're going to have to see how that goes. They don't have... I think a part of the youth that the Dallas Mavericks kind of have right now, they're kind of inconsistent. Like you have, obviously, your veteran guys. This is going to be absolutely massive. And of course, the biggest thing of it all is Cooper Flagg. I mean, he is the superstar sophomore now. He is playing really, really good basketball. And on games where he performs, the team wins. On games where he doesn't perform, the team loses. That's why, obviously, keeping Kyrie Irving on the team also, and that's why the trade rumors are so stupid. You need to have some help for Cooper Flagg. He's playing pretty well this season against Indiana. He went 16 for 25 with his 43 points. And especially if Evan Mobley sits, there's really nobody in that front court quick enough to stay in front of him. So it's going to be very, very interesting to see what happens, especially on the first night of a back-to-back as well. So folks, my take, I think the Dallas Mavericks are going to actually win by 15 or 20 against the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight. The Cavs are kind of in their own head a little bit. They're not playing good basketball by any means. And at the end of the day, they're in a position now where... They're just not playing great basketball. Now, obviously, the Mavericks technically aren't either after that last game against the Timberwolves. When you look at it as a whole, I have full faith in Dusty May making some very impressive adjustments here. The team's in a good spot, right? They're in a very, very good spot. You win this one, you move up to eight and five, and you're in a very good spot. Now, the Dallas Mavericks are currently a one and a half point favorite, but it's a little bit of an interesting one. And at the end of the day, my pick is the Mavericks win. I think Cooper Flagg's going to have 30 plus points. And I think more importantly, or most importantly, Kyrie Irving is going to have a bounce back game, probably putting up 30 points as well. But the big thing to watch will be whether Mobley is there or not. How do the Mavericks front court contain guys like Jared Allen and potentially Evan Mobley as well on the glass? Thank you guys for watching. Thanks for watching. We'll see you in the video later today or tomorrow.