When Moses Brown and Josh Green played for the Texas Legends of the G-League this past Saturday in Frisco, they were surrounded by a bunch of friends.
Dallas Mavericks players Luka Doncic, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jalen Brunson, Boban Marjanovic and Maxi Kleber were all inside Comerica Center to watch Brown and Green put on a show and help the Legends defeat Birmingham, 117-102. Brown finished with 23 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks, and Green contributed 20 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Both Brown and Green were on assignment from the Mavs, who played in San Antonio on Friday night. Coach Jason Kidd, who also attended the game in Frisco, appreciated the support his players gave Brown and Green.
“Going up to Frisco to watch them, it was nice to see their teammates also come,” Kidd said. “It was nice to see those guys go up there and support them.
“But I thought the guys coming off the road to go up there and play the next day just shows the character, and I thought those guys did a great job.”
Kidd said there will be more times this season when he’ll send Brown and Green down to the Legends so they can get some much-needed playing time. Especially since Frisco is approximately 35 minutes from Dallas.
“We talked about it during the week that the schedule presented itself for them to play,” Kidd said. “We thought we were going to get them in that San Antonio game there at the end, but it didn’t work out that way.
“Again, I thought they handled it like pros. I thought they did a great job with the turnaround going up to Frisco and playing. It’s a luxury of having your G-League team so close when the schedule does match up for them to be able to get minutes, and I thought they took full advantage of that.”
In six games with the Mavs, Brown is averaging just one point and 0.8 rebounds in only three minutes per contest. Green, meanwhile, hs played in seven games and is averaging 0.9 points and 1.4 rebounds in 5.3 minutes per contest.
MAXI STILL OUT: Forward Maxi Kleber missed his seventh straight game Monday night with a left oblique strain.
Coach Jason Kidd said Kleber is making progress, but there is no timetable for his return.
“He started on-court workouts,” Kidd said. “No contact drills yet. We’ll have an update once he participates in practice.”
It’s been a rough beginning to this season for Kleber, who battled COVID-19 and multiple injuries last season.
“I think Maxi was playing probably his best basketball, and unfortunate the injury happened,” Kidd said. “But I think it gives his teammates the opportunity to play.
“But he is antsy, I think, in a sense that he wants to get back out and help the team.”
Kleber was averaging 7.2 points and 5.3 rebounds in 18.8 minutes per game prior to his injury.
“He’s working extremely hard, so hopefully when he does come back he can stay healthy for the rest of the season,” Kidd said. “And we do miss.
“He’s part of the fabric that can help us in so many different ways, not just offensively but defensively. But he’s got a great sense of humor and he’s working extremely hard.”
IDENTITY OF TEAM: Coach Jason Kidd said it’s too early in the season for the Mavs to have established any type of identity.
“We’re learning our identity,” Kidd said. “We’re working at it – the chemistry, the accountability. I felt somewhere around Christmas as a player and now as a coach you’ll kind of figure what you have and who you are.
“We’ve still got more than a month before Christmas is here, so I think we have time. But you can see that when we have the intent to be aggressive offensively, good things happen. If the ball touches the paint, good things happen. I’m not saying we’re going to make every shot.”
And on the defensive end?
“When we’re talking and (getting) deflections and we’re rebounding the ball, we’re one of the best,” Kidd said. “I know as fans – Mavs fans – they want it every day.
“But we’ve got to work on that, and throughout this journey hopefully we’ll get that to be something that second half of the season that we can be consistent.”
MAVS COME TO THE DEFENSE: The Mavs showed how tied together they are when a skirmish nearly broke out with 10:39 remaining in the game.
Denver’s Jamychal Green inexplicably tossed Mavs guard Frank Ntilikina to the floor, and Dorian Finney-Smith and others immediately came to Ntilikina’s defense before coaches and other personnel broke things up.
“I think it’s just the character of who those guys are in the locker room,” coach Jason Kidd said. “They protect each other, they play with one another, they have fun playing.
“One of their teammates got thrown to the floor, so they were there to protect him.”
After the referees with the TV screen to review the play, Green was assessed a foul and a technical foul, and Finney-Smith was charged with a technical foul.
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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