Kristaps Porzingis missed his second consecutive game on Friday night when he sat out the Dallas Mavericks’ road game against the Denver Nuggets with lower back tightness.
But Mavs coach Jason Kidd insists that Porzingis’ absence is nothing to be alarmed about, and that he’s starting to feel better.
“He wants to play, but unfortunately he’s not up to playing right now,” Kidd said before Friday’s 106-75 loss to the Nuggets. “We can only hope he gets better tomorrow, and then he’s ready to play in an afternoon game on Sunday.”
The Mavs play the Sacramento Kings on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at American Airlines Center.
When the Mavs acquired Porzingis from the New York Knicks on Jan. 31, 2019, the 7-3 forward/center was still rehabbing from anterior cruciate ligament surgery. But once Porzingis recovered from that injury, he unfortunately has had to deal with a series of other injuries.
However, this was the first year since the 2017-18 campaign that Porzingis entered a season not rehabbing an injury or not coming off a surgery. And he looked refreshed, sounded enthusiastic and was looking forward to showing why he was an Eastern Conference All-Star in 2018 the last time he was fully healthy.
Now this.
“It’s a team game,” Kidd said. “Next guy’s up, and we’ve talked about that.
“For (Porzingis), we want him to be right. If he’s not right, he can’t play.”
Guard Sterling Brown also didn’t dress against the Nuggets as he missed his second straight game while nursing a sprained left ankle.
“Hopefully they’ll feel better tomorrow,” Kidd said, referring to Brown and Porzingis. “That’s all I can report is that they’re starting to feel better and hopefully they can play on Sunday.”
SLOW STARTS: The Mavs are five-for-five this season. But that’s not necessarily a good thing.
In their first five games this season, the Mavs have trailed after the first quarter in all five games. That has put them in a position where they’ve had to chase down an opponent in order to win games.
“I’m just happy that we play three more quarters,” coach Jason Kidd said before Friday’s game. “If we were judged on first quarters, then our record wouldn’t be that good.
“You’re going to go through things like this during the season where your first quarters are slow, your second quarters are slow, and come out of the halftime and you’re slow, and then you can’t score in the fourth quarter. We have to pay attention to it.”
Kidd, though, was impressed with how the Mavs rallied to defeat the San Antonio Spurs, 104-99, on Thursday, after trailing, 23-3, with 4:51 remaining in the first quarter.
“We would like to get off to a good start,” Kidd said. “As a coach, I don’t like seeing the score 20-3. But I think the positives that we can take away is that no one let go of the rope.
“We continued to grind and our defense put us in a position to win that game (Thursday) night, and that’s what happened. But as a coach I would like for us to make all the shots, and for the opposing team to miss all the shots. But that just doesn’t happen.”
MALONE GUSHES ABOUT DONCIC: Before Friday’s Dallas-Denver game, Nuggets coach Michael Malone was gushing about Mavs point guard Luka Doncic and the number of ways he can hurt opposing teams.
“I think that’s why he’s a great player is he knows he can score,” Malone said. “His ability to make plays and make all of his teammates better. . .his ability to get to the foul line. He puts so much pressure on your defense.
“We did not do a good job of guarding him last year. And he’s not afraid of the moment.”
And that’s not all.
“He’s got the courage to step up and not only take, but also make really big shots,” Malone said. “I think that’s what defines great players is, yes, he can get it for himself, but he also has the ability to make everyone around him a better player.
“One thing J-Kidd’s been doing, they’re putting Luka in the post quite a bit, letting him exploit some of the smaller guards.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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