Mavericks' Dereck Lively II Ruled Out Against Suns, Latest on Luka Dončić

The Dallas Mavericks face the Phoenix Suns without Luka Dončić and Dereck Lively II in the lineup on Friday night at Footprint Center.

While Lively traveled with the Mavericks on this road trip, he was ruled out against the Suns. Dončić’s absence is expected to last for the foreseeable future as Kidd communicated a re-evaluation as being set “sometime in the future.”

The Mavericks entered the game with a 6-2 record without Dončić this season and remain confident in their ability to step up.

“Understand there’s not one person or two people that can fill Luka’s (Doncic )shoes, and tonight, it’s Luka and D-Live (Dereck Lively II), and so, we just got to stay in character,” Kidd said. “Understand we’ve been in this situation before. We’re going to start some guys that have started before due to injury, and we believe Gaff (Daniel Gafford) has started for us before. So he has handled starting at the center position.”

With Dončić and Lively out, Naji Marshall and Gafford started. The Mavericks remain focused on the long term and aren’t rushing Dončić back to maximize playoff positioning. Kidd said the team plans to avoid overextending Kyrie Irving’s minutes in Dončić’s absence.

“Yeah, we got the big picture is always in focus. Just understanding running, Kai (Kyrie Irving), over 40 minutes that you know that puts us in a different situation,” Kidd said. “Understanding we have to lean on our leader here to help us, but that doesn’t mean running his minutes up to 40, 42, minutes the final way to win. We believe we have other guys that can eat minutes and play at a high level. We’ll have that opportunity with Luka (Doncic) out.”

In terms of approach, the Mavericks understand the importance of building on the success the group has experienced with a balanced scoring approach, whether Dončić is in the lineup or not. Various Suns players who spoke with reporters at their morning shootaround made clear they had to be ready for this.

“Yeah, I think when you look at the ball movement, I would say there’s six to eight guys in double figures,” Kidd said. “Guys are scoring, the defense is everyone’s hands on deck, in the sense of everybody’s pulling for each other and protecting one another.”

With Irving’s leadership guiding the Mavericks, Kidd is confident in the leadership of the group to help the team handle Dončić’s absence. Irving is averaging 24.1 points, 6.4 assists, and 5.0 rebounds in seven games without Dončić this season.

“I think just the calmness of the group, too,” Kidd explained. “Just understanding what our leader, when you talk about Kai (Kyrie Irving), gives to that group, that just the calmness and the encouragement of those guys going out and playing at a high level, and they’ve done that with some of the injuries that we’ve had this year.”

Phoenix played without Devin Booker (left groin strain), Grayson Allen (concussion protocol), and Bol Bol (left knee contusion). Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal have attempted to guide the Suns without Booker recently and were tasked with doing so again against the Mavericks.

The Mavericks continue their four-game road trip after facing the Suns by playing the Portland Trail Blazers at Moda Center on the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday.