Kyrie Irving needed 25 minutes on Friday night to lead the Dallas Mavericks in scoring. He also needed them to do something he had never done in the NBA.
Irving finished with 24 points, making 8 of 15 shots and 5 of 10 from 3-point range, in a 121-105 win over the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. With 4:23 left and Dallas ahead 112-99, he was whistled for his sixth foul.
It was the first time he had fouled out of an NBA game, according to the Mavericks' team site, which put his career at 781 games.
That ending did not change what came before it. Dallas never trailed, scored 44 points in the first quarter and led 77-43 at halftime. The Mavericks are 1-1, and Dusty May has his first win as an NBA head coach.
A faster second night
This was Irving's second regular-season game since he tore his left ACL on March 3, 2025. In Wednesday's opener at Houston he scored 15 points in about 24 minutes of an 18-point loss, and he was again on a minutes restriction in Indianapolis.
Irving got going early. He hit a 28-foot 3-pointer off a Daniel Gafford pass in the opening minutes and hit another from 27 feet off a Cooper Flagg pass with 1:17 left in the first quarter. Dallas made 8 of 13 from deep in that period.
He also handled the ball for others. Irving set up Marcus Sasser for a 3 and Zaccharie Risacher for a short jumper during the Dallas runs that blew the game open, and finished with three assists, a steal and a blocked shot on Tyrese Haliburton in the first quarter.
With 56 seconds left in the third quarter he added a 27-footer, then fed Max Christie for a running dunk. His fifth 3, early in the fourth, made it 103-82.
Afterward Irving said the group had approached the game with more focus after the opener. "You could tell there was a lot of pressure, jitters, including myself starting with me," he said, as quoted by the Mavericks' site.
The foul-out
Irving lost the ball to Jalen Slawson with 4:24 left and fouled on the play that followed. He had picked up two fouls in the third quarter and another early in the fourth. He did not shrug it off.
"I can't get myself in that position," he said, per the team site. "Technically, I played my minutes. Technically, I did what I was supposed to do in the game. But just from a mental standpoint I've got to do better as a leader out there."
