Mavs Notebook: 4 Takeaways & 2 Major Concerns From Preseason

DALLAS - Sergio de Larrea logged 30 minutes and 10 seconds Wednesday night, more than any other Dallas Mavericks player, with Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg resting after the trip home from the NBA China Games in Macao.

The New Orleans Pelicans won the preseason home opener 101-97 at American Airlines Center. Dallas fell to 1-2 in the preseason. Its last game was a 132-115 win over the Houston Rockets on Sunday in Macao.

Dallas ruled out eight players, Irving and Flagg among them. Dereck Lively II is recovering from right foot surgery and Santi Aldama from right knee surgery. Daniel Gafford had a right shoulder stinger, Morez Johnson Jr. had right shin splints, Marcus Sasser had left adductor tightness, and Jett Howard, a two-way guard, had a stomach virus. A coach's decision kept Dwight Powell out.

Moussa Cissé started at center and tweaked his left ankle before halftime. He did not return.

De Larrea finished with 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists. He went 3-of-6 from the field and 2-of-3 from 3-point range.

Late in the second quarter, the rookie found Cissé on a cut for a dunk that pulled Dallas within 47-44. New Orleans closed the half on a 9-1 run and went to the locker room up 56-45.

Dallas turned it over 27 times, and New Orleans scored 27 points off those giveaways. Mavericks coach Dusty May said the staff can do more to help the players with turnovers, and that Dallas does not have much offensive variety in yet.

"He's shot it very well in games and scrimmages," May said. "And the turnovers, that's partly us not giving him enough help or not having enough playmakers and ball handlers on the court with him at all times."

"He's a very, very confident player," May continued. "He makes his teammates better. So we're very, very pleased with his progression so far."

De Larrea set up Tobi Lawal several times in the second half.

"He's really good. He makes everyone on the floor better, and he gets them in the right spots," Lawal said. "He's just easy to play with. He sees the whole floor, especially being a tall guard. He's able to know the next play before it happens sometimes. But that's part of the jelling process, just getting to know each other. But he's really good at it."

In June, de Larrea helped Valencia Basket win the Liga ACB title. He signed his rookie contract with Dallas on July 3. How many minutes the 20-year-old plays Friday is up to the coaches.

"I want to try to help the team to win, to do the things in the best way possible," de Larrea said. "Then the minutes are [up to] the coach, the other part that doesn't depend on me."

"But I'm very happy with the team, I'm very happy with the rotation and everything. I'm just trying to help the team in the way I can," de Larrea added. "If I play more, if I play less, my job is to help the team to win."

Lawal went 4-of-6 from the field, made all 8 of his free throws, and finished with 16 points in 23 minutes and 29 seconds. He also had 4 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block.

Dallas took Lawal with the No. 48 pick in June and signed him to a two-way contract on July 3. On switches Wednesday, he guarded Herbert Jones and Trey Murphy III. Murphy shot 2-of-8, including 0-of-5 from deep.

May said Lawal's awareness of how he can affect a game keeps improving, and that the six fouls hurt because Dallas needed him at the end.

"It's tough to say, because it's just how do you impact each possession positively," May explained. "And I thought him getting out of ball screens quickly, him putting pressure on the rim, him as a cutter, I thought he did a lot, and then it was a pressure release for us."

"So whatever the game dictates, obviously we want all our guys to continue improving at dribble, passing, and shooting, and also decision-making," May detailed. "But for the most part, just continue to make incremental and gradual progress, and he's going to be a good player for us."

At the NBA Draft Combine in May, Lawal posted a 40.5-inch standing vertical. It was the second-highest ever measured there.

"You guys see it. I don't really know what else to say besides I've never seen somebody jump like he can," John Poulakidas said. "But he's just a fighter, a guy like [him] you just love to play with, 'cause you know he's gonna make the right plays, he's gonna be in the right places at all times."

"And it's been great to share the court with these guys, and I'm excited for what the next several months have to offer for us," Poulakidas noted.

Lawal asks for the lob even when the angle is not there.

"It's very fun. He grabs the ball super high," de Larrea explained. "Even when I can't pass [him] the lob, he's telling me, 'Throw me the lob. Throw me the lob.' And it's like, 'I can['t].' Yeah, he's a super athletic guy, and it's super easy to play with him."

Lawal gets so dialed in that he sometimes cannot hear the crowd. His sixth foul came late in the fourth quarter, with Dallas still chasing.

"I was pissed," Lawal explained. "I didn't even know I had five fouls at the same time."

Poulakidas also scored 16 points off the bench, making 4-of-8 from 3-point range. In the second quarter, he hit back-to-back 3-pointers. His pull-up jumper with nine seconds left cut the deficit to 100-97, and AJ Johnson's free throw with 0.4 seconds remaining set the final.

Seth Lundy added 13 points and went 4-of-4 at the line. Down 95-86 with just over three minutes left, Dallas got within 98-95 on a Tarik Biberović 3-pointer, four straight Lundy free throws, and a Lundy steal and dunk.

The Mavericks' bench outscored the starters 70-27.

Poulakidas, a Yale product, is on a two-way contract. He appeared in 13 regular-season games for Dallas last season and averaged 8.8 points in 19.5 minutes.

When his number gets called, he knows what he is there to do.

"My guys did a great job of setting me up, and I'm just doing my job," Poulakidas explained. "My number's called, I know what I'm here to do, I know what I'm supposed to do. And I'm just putting the ball in the basket."

New Orleans finished with 14 steals. The Pelicans committed 21 turnovers of their own, and Dallas turned those into 16 points. Jeremiah Fears led the Pelicans with 16 points and 3 steals.

The Mavericks shot 35.3% overall and went 10-of-49 on 3-pointers. Zaccharie Risacher missed all 7 of his 3-point tries and scored 6 points on 3-of-11 shooting. P.J. Washington and Caleb Martin went 0-of-5 apiece.

On the glass, Dallas won 48-40 behind 20 offensive rebounds. The Mavericks had a 27-10 edge in second-chance points. New Orleans scored 50 points in the paint to Dallas' 38 and won fast-break points 23-8.

A couple of bad turnovers can make young players tighten up, and that is youth and inexperience.

"We're playing faster, and we're sharing the ball a lot more. The ball is less stagnant," Poulakidas said. "Obviously, when you've got guys like Ky, guys like Coop, they're going to make plays that nobody else can with the ball."

"For the rest of us, we've got to continue finding advantages how we can and continue to play together and be selfless," Poulakidas continued.

May coached Michigan to the national title last season before Dallas hired him. He gave the Pelicans credit for their physicality and said their pressure sped the Mavericks into drives with bad spacing.

"I've said I'm very, very hard on myself and staff, but we'll keep our self-evaluations in-house," May said. "I don't think we've played with the necessary physicality that we're going to need to if we're going to play in the games we want. But we also haven't had our most physically gifted guys playing."

"And as far as self-evaluation, we could be 60 and 10, and I'll probably be pretty hard on myself, so you can imagine," May added. "But we're a work in progress overall, though. The nuances of the NBA game is much, much different. But just like the college game, just get a little bit better each rep, whatever, 800 games, and just try to learn from each one of them and get better."

Dallas closes the preseason Friday against the Atlanta Hawks at American Airlines Center. Tip-off is 7 p.m. CT.

The regular season opens Wednesday, Oct. 21, at Houston. Tip-off is 7:30 p.m. CT.