The Dallas Mavericks lost their Thursday night preseason contest against the Utah Jazz by a score of 107-102, as the Mavericks and head coach Jason Kidd are still tinkering with a variety of different lineups ahead of the start of the regular season. Thursday marked the debut for Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving in Dallas’ lineup this season though, as they didn’t play in the first game against the Memphis Grizzlies due to rest.
Monitoring the workload of two of your star players on the wrong side of 30 years old is completely understandable from the Mavericks’ perspective, so it’s not surprising that Irving and Thompson are being heavily limited in mere exhibition games, as both players only played in the first half on Thursday evening.
Even though Thompson only played in the first half last night, he scored 10 points and had three assists, while also defending multiple positions at a very high clip. Thompson admittedly had some jitters to shake out from a shooting perspective in his Mavericks debut, but Dallas’ game against Utah gave a prelude as to just how dynamic this Mavericks offense can be when Irving, Thompson, and Luka Doncic are all in the lineup.
However, Thompson unfortunately experienced some back tightness during the contest, which is exactly the opposite of what Mavericks fans want to see coming out of a preseason game.
Dallas already saw guard Dante Exum get surgery for a right wrist injury that will keep him out three months earlier this preseason, so losing their new star in Thompson due to injury is the last thing this Mavericks team has on their agenda. Thompson didn’t practice fully on Friday and did a “walkthrough” according to Jason Kidd. He said that Thompson got treatment on his back, and the media should have a chance to speak to Kidd after today’s practice and get an update.
Luckily for the Mavericks though, Thompson said that he’ll be “ready to go” on Monday when the Mavericks face off against the LA Clippers at the new Intuit Dome. Based on Thompson’s anecdote, it seems like this injury isn’t anything more than a little soreness, and he should be perfectly fine for the rest of the preseason if everything goes according to plan.
Thompson saying that he’ll play Monday night is an extremely good sign when you take into consideration that players his age commonly sit out of preseason for the most minor of injuries, and Thompson appears to be highly motivated to get further acclimated with his new Mavericks squad.
While Thompson does have an extensive injury history over the past handful of seasons that includes a torn ACL and torn Achilles, this back tightness isn’t something that is related to those injuries whatsoever, and this could easily be a product of Thompson knocking off some rust.
Still, we can’t completely neglect Thompson’s injury history and age, and he’s too valuable to the Mavericks for them to lose him to injury this early on in the season. While it appears Thompson’s back tightness is nothing to worry about, Dallas should air on the side of caution if he continues to experience more pain or it gets worse, as they don’t want to lose their marquee free agent addition in preseason.
