The Nets and Dallas Mavericks have released their Tuesday afternoon injury reports. All-Star guard Kyrie Irving (thumb) is listed as probable, meaning there is a good chance the former Brooklyn star plays Tuesday night at Barclays Center for the first time since last season’s trade.
Both teams will be playing in the second game of a back-to-back set.
Irving’s return comes six days after Kevin Durant played his first game back in Brooklyn, a 136-120 win for the Phoenix Suns in which Durant finished with a game-high 33 points. Luka Doncic, the NBA’s second-leading scorer who averages 34.5 points per game, is listed as questionable entering the day because of a nasal contusion.
It will be Kyrie’s show if Doncic cannot go. So Irving, assuming he plays, could be poised for a big night in front of a Barclays Center crowd that will undoubtedly be hostile in nature, given Irving’s messy departure from Brooklyn.
The Nets (20-29) are coming off a 109-98 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Monday night, while Dallas collected its 27th win of the season on Monday against the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center.
“Yeah, it’s the next game for us,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said. “I want our group to be concerned about playing the Dallas Mavericks. That’s all I’m really concerned about, for us to turn the page and try to get a win [today].”
Durant received a tribute video about 24 seconds in length in his return to Barclays Center last Wednesday despite explicitly stating he did not want one. James Harden, another member of the Nets’ failed Big 3 experiment, did not get one when he returned to Brooklyn for the first time as a member of the 76ers on Feb. 11 of last season. However, Harden ultimately got the last laugh by sweeping his former team last postseason.
Whether Irving gets a tribute video on Tuesday night remains to be seen. He probably does not care either way. He made it clear on Monday night that he believes return games should be normalized instead of hyped.
“Obviously there’s some history there,” Irving told Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News following Monday’s game. “There’s a competitive edge that you have going into each game when you play against your former team. It’s not like, uncommon. It’s been happening for years in the league… But I was just saying that to say, let’s just normalize the emotions that go into those games, playing against your former team instead of making it such a big deal of, ‘are you ready for it?’”
Cam Thomas, for one, is excited to face off against his former teammate mentor.
“It’s good to have the competition. They’re the moments I live for,” Thomas said. “I always want to play against guys at my position like that. At the end of the day he’s still my brother, but I still have to go at him no matter what. So it will definitely be good, him playing here.”
