Dallas Mavs Approach NBA Season With 1 Problem That's Easy To Fix

The Dallas Mavs made their preseason home debut on Wednesday in a 101-97 loss to the New Orleans at the AAC, a game plagued by turnovers and also marked by the fact that the team's two big stars - Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving - sat out.

The good news about the 27 turnovers committed by the Mavs in this one?

Maybe we can just chalk it up to fatigue.

“We were very proud of how the young guys came in and competed,'' said first-year coach Dusty May. "All the vets just looked a step slow after the China trip. We certainly got something out of this, but obviously when you turn the ball over like we did, it’s gonna be tough to win ...''

The Mavs are indeed just a few days removed from the trip to Macao, where they played a pair of NBA China Games. They split two outings against the Rockets and were back on the floor in less than 48 hours after an 18-hour flight home.

That will tend to grind down a guy.

Oh, and once Kyrie and Flagg are back in the lineup, there probably won't be 27 turnovers and 14 steals by the opponent.

May did compliment his team on its rebounding here; Dallas won that stat battle, 48-40.

“We had a really, really sound effort on the glass,'' he said.

Also of note: Moussa Cisse, the starting center, tweaked his left ankle in the first half and sat out the rest of the night. He had eight points, six rebounds, and three blocks in 16:29 before the injury, which May said there was no reason to push.

One positive here: Sergio de Larrea played a team-high 30 minutes and had 10 points, four rebounds, and six assists, (but with five turnovers.)''

Said May: "We’ve had some self-inflicted (problems) and part of that is we don’t have a lot of offensive variety in right now. But there’s some things we can definitely as a staff do more to help these guys with the turnovers.''

To their credt, this version of the Mavericks outscored New Orleans 34-26 in the fourth quarter, and maybe that's something to build on Dallas will close the preseason against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday at the AAC, with tip-off set for 7 p.m. CT.

May said that the finale might be a "dress rehearsal'' for when Dallas opens the regular season Oct. 21 at Houston, with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m. CT. That might mean some burn for Flagg and Irving ... which figures to fix the turnover problem and the "step-slow'' problem as well.