DALLAS — When the NBA launched the In-Season Tournament in 2023, Kyrie Irving was unsure about the concept.
“I wasn’t that excited about it,” Irving admitted Friday.
Three years later, Irving said he has gotten more comfortable with the idea of the NBA handing out a trophy prior to Christmas and sees value in gunning to win the NBA Cup.
“I think I understand the concept of it now and what it means for the fandom of basketball,” Irving said. “And just getting your legs up underneath you. … The Knicks and the Spurs last year, we saw them in the Finals. I think there is some correlation to playing well early in the season and that leading to success later on down the line.”
If the Dallas Mavericks are able to make some noise in this year’s in-season tournament, they will have a reformed skeptic to thank.
In his second home game back at American Airlines Center since returning from left knee surgery, Irving scored 35 points and distributed nine assists in the Mavericks’ 116-111 win over the Houston Rockets. Irving poured in 26 of those points in the second half. The one-two punch he formed with teenage co-star Cooper Flagg (33 points, nine rebounds, six assists) allowed the Mavericks to avenge the blowout loss they suffered to the Rockets in their regular-season opener only nine days earlier.
“We really needed to have possessions where it mattered,” Irving said. “We’re going to be in a lot of games like this throughout this season.”
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The Mavericks trailed by eight points going into the fourth quarter. Their star duo of Irving and Flagg keyed a comeback and made enough clutch shots to ensure that Dallas would earn its third straight win and improve to 4-2 overall.
Irving’s pull-up 3 from 28 feet away with 7:01 remaining gave Dallas its first lead since the second quarter. The rest of the way, Irving and Flagg both made shots to break a tie and push the Mavericks out in front again. The two combined to score 27 fourth-quarter points — the same number of points the Rockets had as a team in the final 12 minutes.
“For those guys to be able to share that load and are closers like they are, there are several layers to it,” Mavericks coach Dusty May said. “It makes you feel good, very confident going into close games.”
May wasn’t around last season, when the Mavericks had a 17-28 record in “clutch” games (defined as contests where the score was within five points in the final five minutes). Nor was Irving after tearing his left ACL in March 2025, and Dallas badly missed his otherworldly shot-making ability in high-pressure moments, which it has gotten back now. Flagg is also no longer a rookie and has been playing with a great deal of confidence.
“Just having a teenager out there and making these tough shots and making these and-1s and being as clutch as anyone I’ve seen, it’s amazing to be a part of,” Irving said. “It does take some pressure off of me.”
In the five games Irving and Flagg have played together, the Mavericks have a 4-1 record with wins over the Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder and Rockets. Dallas has outscored its opponents by 12 points per 100 possessions in the 98 minutes they have shared the floor.
“We are still growing,” Irving said. “We still have a level we want to get to — a higher level. We are going to continue to push each other. We obviously know the external chatter as well and the 15-year age gap and what we are going to accomplish and how we are going to mesh. I think we threw all that out the window and just really focused on what we can control, which is our effort and how we treat each other.”
While Friday’s game was officially an NBA Cup game between two West Group A teams, it was unofficially a night to celebrate Irving. On seats behind each basket, the Mavericks placed foam fingers with the word “Hélà” on them, a reference to the “Little Mountain” name the Standing Rock Sioux tribe gave Irving in 2018. Additionally, Irving addressed the crowd at American Airlines Center just before tipoff and thanked Mavericks fans for their support.
seats behind each basket tonight get these https://t.co/Zq6D9uTi24
— Isaac Harris (@IsaacLHarris) October 30, 2026
On the floor, Irving had his highest-scoring game in more than 20 months. He made 12 of the 19 field goals he attempted, drained five 3-pointers and went a perfect 6-of-6 at the free-throw line.
Irving’s special night allowed the Mavericks to move to 1-0 in NBA Cup group play — a positive first step for a team that’s acting as if it’s going to treat the in-season tournament seriously.
“Depending on which team you are playing against, some teams are taking it serious (and) some teams aren’t,” Irving said. “It’s a good pressure environment to have early in the season.”
He added, “We have an opportunity to bring home a trophy in the first part of the season. We know who is in our group and what’s in front of us. We just have to take it one game at a time.”
