Irving Leads Mavericks Past Pacers, 121–105, for May’s First NBA Win

Kyrie Irving scored 24 points and the Dallas Mavericks built a 34-point halftime lead before holding off the Indiana Pacers, 121-105, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on October 23, 2026. Dallas gave Dusty May his first NBA coaching victory, with P.J. Washington adding 20 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks.

The Mavericks led 77-43 at halftime and by as many as 37 points. Indiana cut the margin to 13 in the fourth quarter, but baskets from Naji Marshall and Max Christie stopped that push. Both teams finished the night 1-1.

Cooper Flagg contributed 14 points, five rebounds, six assists and three steals in 17 minutes before leaving late in the first half. Dallas’s official postgame report described left shoulder soreness after a foul by Aaron Nesmith; Flagg did not play in the second half. May said, “He will be evaluated in the next couple of days.”

Dallas’s first-half shooting builds the lead

Regulation game, 48 minutes. Running scores show Dallas first, Indiana second.

Player rebounds exclude separate team rebounds. Dallas’s 15 total turnovers comprise 14 player turnovers and one team turnover; Indiana’s 21 comprise 19 player turnovers and two team turnovers. Bench scoring includes all players who entered off the bench.

Dallas scored 44 points in the opening quarter, making 16 of 23 field-goal attempts and eight of 13 three-pointers. Flagg made all four of his shots, including both threes, and scored 12 points. The Mavericks led 44-27 after a quarter in which they recorded 11 assists.

A 15-0 Dallas run turned a 46-31 lead into 61-31 in the second quarter. Zaccharie Risacher supplied three baskets in the sequence, including its opening bank shot and finishing putback at 5:16. Flagg assisted baskets by Morez Johnson Jr. and Daniel Gafford, while Marshall and Christie also scored.

Nesmith was assessed a flagrant-1 foul on Flagg with 59.7 seconds left before halftime. Flagg made both resulting free throws, reaching his final 14 points, before leaving. Christie’s layup pushed Dallas’s lead to 77-40 at 42.3 seconds; Pascal Siakam’s three-point play brought Indiana to 77-43 at the break. TSP’s separate Flagg injury report covers that development.

Indiana won the second half 62-44. Its third-quarter advantage was 33-21, leaving Dallas ahead 98-76. In the fourth, Obi Toppin’s alley-oop dunk and Andrew Nembhard’s three-point play helped trim the deficit to 112-99 with 4:39 remaining. Irving fouled out at 4:23, but Marshall scored at 4:05 and Christie at 3:27 to restore a 17-point margin. Indiana got back within 13 twice before Dallas completed the win.

Siakam led Indiana with 23 points. Tyrese Haliburton had 18 points, six rebounds and seven assists; Nembhard scored 16 and Toppin added 13. Dallas received 16 points from Christie, 15 points and six assists from Marshall, and 11 points from Risacher. Washington’s 13 rebounds led all players, while Ivica Zubac collected 11 for Indiana.

Dallas made 14 of 34 three-pointers to Indiana’s seven of 32. The Mavericks also scored 31 points from Indiana’s 21 total turnovers, compared with 21 points for Indiana from Dallas’s 15. Indiana led 60-54 in paint scoring and 21-20 in second-chance points, but those advantages did not offset the early deficit and the difference from three-point range.

May credits the collective effort; Carlisle accepts responsibility

“I thought we had a great team effort,” May said in the Mavericks’ written postgame report. He credited contributions throughout the roster, high-point rebounds, improved transition defense and ball security. He also qualified the impression with the benefit of good shots, created together, actually falling.

Rick Carlisle put Indiana’s start on the entire group, himself included. “It just simply comes down to an attitude and a disposition,” he said in the Pacers’ official Game Rewind. He identified two inadequate first halves, accepted that he had not prepared the players sufficiently and held Jalen Slawson’s effort up as the standard.

“We’ve got to be a lot better in that starting group,” Haliburton said in the same report. He praised Quenton Jackson and Slawson’s bench energy but said the response came too late. His explanation connected defensive stops to opportunities to run, while emphasizing shot quality and offensive process. Nembhard appreciated the crowd’s welcome for Haliburton but regretted Indiana’s inability to capitalize on it.

In the Pacers’ separate report on Haliburton’s home return, the guard also acknowledged his own three turnovers and said settling down in the second half produced better looks. Slawson finished with four points, five rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 16:14; Jackson had eight points and three assists in 16:51.

Irving discussed May’s direct coaching in a second Mavericks report, welcoming the same push and instruction given to younger players. He qualified his assessment after only two games together, also drawing on practices. Washington praised May’s detail and support: “He’s very detailed on both ends of the floor.” The players celebrated their coach’s first NBA win with an ice-water shower.

The actual groups show different shooting stretches

Dallas’s starting five of Irving, Washington, Gafford, Christie and Flagg shared 3:49, making six of eight field goals while Indiana made five of eight. A different group with Marshall, Christie, Risacher, Flagg and Johnson shared 3:26; Dallas made four of seven shots while Indiana missed all four attempts. These are the shots taken during each exact combination’s minutes, rather than the players’ individual full-game totals.

The Mavericks’ most-used group was Washington, Marshall, Christie, Marcus Sasser and Risacher at 8:17.3. Dallas shot five of 13 and Indiana nine of 17 in that sample. Indiana’s most-used five, Siakam, Zubac, Nembhard, Haliburton and Nesmith, shared 7:17, shooting six of 12 while Dallas shot four of 13. Indiana’s marked starting five with Jarace Walker instead of Nesmith shared 5:19, with Indiana six of 11 and Dallas seven of 10.

The five most-used actual groups for each team, ordered by shared time within each team. Official chronological play-by-play and substitutions establish 48:00 of lineup time per team and reconcile all 26 participants’ rounded minutes and field-goal records. FG and 3PT are made/attempted, for and against, during that exact group’s shared court time; 3PT is included in FG. Repeated appearances are combined across quarters and opposing groups. Shared clocks for field goals and substitutions reconcile in both source-list and action-number order. Free-throw allocation at substitution clocks cannot be reconciled consistently, so unit free throws, total points and net scoring are omitted. Individual box-score +/− is not used to create unit totals. These single-game samples do not rank the groups’ enduring ability.

Complete player statistics and availability statuses

What comes next

Dallas hosts the San Antonio Spurs at American Airlines Center on Saturday, October 24, at 6 p.m. MDT. Indiana visits the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on Sunday, October 25, at 4 p.m. MDT.

Official video and game records

Watch the NBA’s Mavericks–Pacers video recap and first-half highlights, plus the Pacers’ official Haliburton-to-Zubac action clip. The official box score and complete play-by-play provide the original game records. Reactions above are attributed to the teams’ linked written postgame reports. Video links open the original official releases.