Max Christie became questionable for Saturday’s game at Cleveland on Friday, and that designation gives the Dallas Mavericks one more rotation problem to solve before the opening tip. The NBA’s Friday evening injury report listed Christie with a left ankle sprain after he tweaked it during Thursday’s fourth quarter at Minnesota.
Christie’s shooting gives that uncertainty weight. He made 40.4% of his three-point attempts last season and appeared in 77 games, averaging 12.3 points. Those numbers describe a contributor Dallas could use while trying to put Thursday behind it. Losing another shooting option would make the response harder, even though Christie alone could never have repaired that defeat.
That job has become harder to replace. Tarik Biberovic is out with right heel bursitis, Sergio de Larrea is out with a right knee sprain and Dereck Lively II remains out after right foot surgery. Caleb Martin is listed as available despite a right-thumb splint, so Dallas still has bodies to arrange. It does not have an exact Christie substitute waiting in a drawer.
Martin’s Thursday performance shows both the appeal and the limitation of that alternative. He started, played 21 minutes, scored seven points on 3-for-6 shooting and supplied five assists. He made one of three 3-point attempts.
That is the kind of all-purpose contribution a team can use, but Martin’s passing and connective play do not reproduce Christie’s established perimeter shooting profile. Asking him to help create offense is different from asking him to simply fill a shooting lane.
Naji Marshall supplied 13 points, four assists and two steals in Minnesota. He shot 4-for-10 and made one 3-pointer in 23 minutes. P.J.
Washington scored 10 points in 16 minutes, while Cooper Flagg logged 27 minutes with 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Those players offer ways to divide the work. Division is the problem: a role that disappears from one player’s line often reappears as several smaller burdens across the lineup.
Still, Christie’s ankle cannot be used to explain Thursday’s 133-94 defeat. He played seven minutes and scored three points on 1-for-2 shooting, including one 3-pointer. Dallas trailed 67-52 at halftime and 103-69 after three quarters. The Mavericks finished at 37% from the field, went 13-for-48 from beyond the arc and committed 19 turnovers. Minnesota scored 29 points off those Dallas giveaways.
That is a team-wide failure, even before considering that Minnesota shot 58% and made 15 of 32 3-point attempts. Kyrie Irving scored 10 points on 4-for-11 shooting, Flagg had 12 and Christie’s short night was only one piece of a game that had already moved decisively away from Dallas. A healthy Christie might have preserved a cleaner rotation.
