Mavs' Kyrie Irving in 'Good Place' in Knee Recovery

There's obviously a lot of "good" to take from Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg combining for 68 points, as they did in the Dallas Mavericks' last win over the Houston Rockets to move to 4-2 early in the season.

And as it relates to Dallas' veteran point guard, there remains some uncertainty in his recovery from his torn ACL and his status on the team moving forward.

Irving himself as responded with more good news.

"It’s just a great feeling when you know the work translates into games," said Irving, who poured in a season-high 35 points against Houston in 35 minutes of action.

"It was the first four games, five games, I really felt like my body has been in a good place. But there’s more that I can get out of my instincts. There’s more that I can unlock in my game. There’s more of an attack mindset I can keep going to. There’ll be times I’m out on the perimeter, I’m not really cutting or I’m not really active, and I just don’t wanna be stagnant on those possessions."

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Irving has mentioned several times how he's excited to finally team up on the court with Flagg, who added 33 points in the win over the Rockets. A season ago, Irving had no choice but to watch the Mavs tumble to a record 30 games below .500 as he nursed the torn ACL he suffered in March 2025.

Although Irving now has an emerging co-partner to relieve his offensive responsibility on the floor, the nine-time All-Star believes there are more milestones to reach. Those can be reached by how much he no longer thinks about the injury mid-game.

"I really wanna be able to push myself. And that just comes with reps and comes with rhythm and also making the choice to get out and run despite just maybe some of the mental fatigue or physical fatigue," he said.

"And just not thinking about, like, hey, how do I feel right now? It should just be about playing tonight and just playing the possessions out, and that’s probably the first game of the last four where I felt like I was just playing out the basketball game to my possessions IQ without thinking about, all right, how does my leg feel or how do I feel physically."

Irving especially picked up his play in the second half. Dallas trailed by seven at halftime before Irving scored 26 points in the third and fourth quarters.

Irving has only surpassed 30 minutes of playing time twice in his four games played. He has yet to play in a back-to-back for the team who will see the most of them throughout this season.

The biggest "good" news? The Mavs are 4-0 in Irving's last four appearances.

"I feel great, I feel great. It’s great to build up to this moment. I think thinking about how we were talking about the minutes restriction, the first game versus Houston, and how it’s kind of controlling my internal frustration," Irving said about what has motivated him.

"But I trust our coaching staff, I trust our medical staff in being able to develop a great dialogue and getting to this point, and just take patience, and I’m gonna enjoy it, but also give myself a lot of grace as I’m continuing to get better throughout the season."