Kyrie Irving injury update: the Dallas Mavericks guard sat out Monday's game against Sacramento with left knee injury management, and the visiting Kings beat Dallas 115-100 for their first win of the season.
Darius Acuff Jr. scored a game-high 25 points for Sacramento, which improved to 1-6 and became the last NBA team to win a game this season. Malik Monk added 24 points off the bench and Zach LaVine finished with 23.
Kyrie Irving injury update for Dallas
Dallas listed Irving out with left knee injury management. The guard is averaging 21.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game this season, and the report of his absence did not include a return timeline.
His three-game winning streak came with him in the lineup; the Mavericks' run ended without him. Dallas also lost the 3-point math badly, shooting 21.2% (7 of 33) from beyond the arc against Sacramento's 44.2% (19 of 43).
Sacramento's third-quarter separation
Sacramento led 54-53 at halftime after Monk answered Caleb Martin's 3-pointer with a triple of his own in the final 46 seconds. Domantas Sabonis had closed the first quarter with a layup for a 19-18 Kings lead.
The Kings opened the third with an 8-2 run, built on consecutive 3-pointers from LaVine and Acuff. Acuff's high-arcing floater made it 62-55, and he capped a 7-0 burst with back-to-back baskets for a 71-65 lead with 4:09 left in the period.
LaVine's reverse layup through traffic pushed the margin to 81-74, and moments later he stripped Cooper Flagg on a drive. Emanuel Sharp turned a steal into a transition pull-up 3 for an 86-75 lead early in the fourth, and Monk's 3 after a timeout made it 94-79 with 8:02 to play.
Acuff scored seven straight Sacramento points, capped by a top-of-the-key 3-pointer that made it 106-91. Leaky Black added 12 points and four steals, and Precious Achiuwa pulled down 10 rebounds.
Cooper Flagg's 3-of-19 shooting night
Flagg scored 17 points but made only 3 of 19 field-goal attempts, doing his work at the line with 11 made free throws. Daniel Gafford and Walter Clayton Jr. scored 20 apiece for Dallas, Morez Johnson Jr. added 13 and P.J. Washington produced 12.
Analysis: the 3-point gap
The Kings made 12 more 3-pointers than the Mavericks, a 36-point edge from one zone that frames the final 15-point margin. That is the load-bearing number of the night, and it sits apart from the Irving question.
Dallas got 20-point nights from Gafford and Clayton and still could not close the gap, because its shot profile leaned on the arc without conversion. Sacramento's spacing held; Dallas's did not.
The original report was published by gmanetwork.com.
