The rivalry between the Dallas Mavericks (0-0) and the San Antonio Spurs (0-0) was once one of the greatest parts of being a sports fan in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As they prepare to square off once more in both teams’ 2025-26 season opener on Wednesday at American Airlines Center, the I-35 bloodfeud may be on its way back.
The Spurs are in something of a theoretical ascendency, while the Mavericks brass swears up and down that their team is built to win now as well. Pardon us here at Mavs Moneyball
if we decline the opportunity to hold our collective breath, but still, this thing could at least be on its way back to “meaningful” as 2025-26 looms. Not only will the top two picks from June’s 2025 NBA Draft be on the floor on Wednesday, but they’ll ride along with the established stars that dot both rosters as both Dallas and San Antonio looks to climb the Western Conference ranks this season.
Can the Mavs drag the Spurs into a muddy rock fight among their tall, tall trees? Or will San Antonio, which has spent the last few years stockpiling young talent (Devin Vassell, Stephon Castle, Victor Wembanyama), finally get a little revenge in Dallas after the Mavs took the previous two season openers?
Here are three storylines that could affect the outcome.
Will Daniel Gafford play?
Daniel Gafford is listed as doubtful for the season opener against the Spurs as of Tuesday’s 8:30 p.m. NBA Injury Report. He went down on the first day of training camp with an ankle injury, which kept him out of most practice sessions and all four of the Mavs’ preseason games.
Dereck Lively II will no doubt see increased minutes in the opener as a result, and Mavericks fans should have no problem with that, as Lively has gotten the better of Wembanyama in each of the past two season openers. More on that below.
Gafford’s probable absence leaves the door open for Anthony Davis to see some time playing the five as well. His minutes at the five were some of Dallas’ best and most productive stretches during preseason play. It’s one of the frustrating things about the team’s roster construction. Davis is best when playing the five, but insists on playing the four. This will, as they say, work itself out to some degree as the season wears on. He can call himself a four all he wants — but when the moment calls for it, he’ll play to what the game on the floor calls for.
The Mavericks will also be without the services of backup guard Dante Exum for the season opener. He is listed on the injury report as out due to a right knee/injury management.
Lively vs. Wemby
Lively has stared down the potentially generational talent of Wembanyama in each of the past two Mavericks season openers, and each time, he’s gotten the better of the individual matchup. Last year, Lively went 6-of-8 from the floor for 15 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in 28 minutes on the floor in the Mavericks’ 120-109 win over the Spurs at the AAC. Wemby had 17 and nine, but it came on 5-of-18 shooting in the same 28 minutes. He was a minus-20 in the loss, if you’ll spare the suspect reliability of the plus-minus stat on a nightly basis.
The year before, in both players’ NBA debut, Lively went 7-for-8 from the floor, totaling 16 points and 10 boards in 31 minutes, while Wembanyama finished with 15 and five, plus five turnovers. The Mavs won, 126-119. Dallas had won seven in a row against the Spurs until San Antonio beat Dallas 126-116 in the teams’ fourth and final matchup of 2024-25, on March 12, when the Mavs were without basically everyone due to one of the worst injury plagues this franchise has ever seen.
De’Aaron Fox led all scorers with 32 points that night, but he has been ruled out for Wednesday’s season opener with a strained right hamstring.
The Cooper Flagg Era begins
The loudest talking point surrounding this game, though, has to be the Dawning of the Age of Cooper Flagg. It deserves to be, and it will be. That’s not to say that Flagg is guaranteed to shoot out of the gate with a 20-6-6 night. Fans need to remind themselves that it’s okay if the 18-year-old who, according to age, should be starting his freshman season in college at this point, shows some nerves or makes some mistakes in his NBA debut. It’s even okay if the night is a downright flop for Flagg.
Regardless of the outcome, Wednesday marks a new epoch in Dallas Mavericks basketball. This is perhaps the highest-touted American-born NBA rookie since LeBron James stepped on the floor in Cleveland. Flagg has shown us in small doses throughout Summer League and preseason play that he’s legit on both ends of the floor. What he doesn’t show up with in his bag on Wednesday, he will absorb as his rookie season wears on.
The kid is legit. At his best, he will shove the tragic remembrances of The Trade That Is And Should Not Be to the far corners of our basketball minds and make us remember what pure sports joy is. At his worst, he’ll still be a marvel of an 18-year-old, struggling against men 10 years his elder before he soon races past them and into the record books. I don’t think Vassell or Harrison Barnes will relish the task of keeping this kid in front of them on defense, and I think he may be the best individual defender on the floor in his first-ever NBA game.
It’s going to be fun to watch the kid ball. I don’t know about you, but as the season opener against the Spurs draws near, I’m finally getting more and more ready to put my grievances with management on the back burner and turn the page to the next era of Mavericks basketball — the Cooper Flagg Era.
Oh, and by the way, the Mavs’ backcourt will have to be mindful of Flagg’s San Antonio rookie counterpart — the second overall pick of the 2025 Draft, Dylan Harper. He may start at one of the guard positions in Fox’s absence, or he may come off the bench, but he’s bound to turn some NBA heads as the season progresses.
How to watch
The Spurs and the Mavericks is scheduled to tip off on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. CDT from American Airlines Center, which means the game will actually tip sometime after 8:40 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN.
