Dallas Mavericks Embrace 'Next Man Up' Without Maxi Kleber Against OKC Thunder

DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks have been dealt a significant blow with the loss of Maxi Kleber, who will miss the Western Conference semifinal series against the Oklahoma City Thunder due to a right shoulder AC joint separation.

Kleber suffered the injury in Game 6 against the Los Angeles Clippers and will be re-evaluated in three weeks. Mavericks coach Jason Kidd is already looking to the next man up.

"It's next man up... We would love to be healthy, but Maxi's out, so there's nothing we can do except it's on to the next guy."

Tim Hardaway Jr., working his way back from a right ankle sprain, returned to practice on Sunday after suffering a setback. Against a smaller Thunder team, Kidd isn't concerned about depth without Kleber and views regaining Hardaway into the fold as the "next man up" in this instance.

"We get Timmy back, so we get healthy there," Kidd said. "That's how we'll look at it is that we lost Maxi, but we get Timmy back."

Kleber's absence is a significant loss for the Mavericks, given he's been relied on as their main switching option at the five while being their primary stretch five option. He's been relied on to close games often throughout the season due to those intangibles.

In Game 5 against the Clippers, Kleber proved instrumental, scoring 15 points while shooting 5-7 from beyond the arc. The Mavericks remain confident in their ability to overcome Kleber's absence given they've dealt with no shortage of scenarios throughout the season requiring them to adapt.

"Just seeing one of our family members go down that bad, we all get hit," Mavericks rookie center Dereck Lively II said. "But Maxi knows that we've got his back, and we know that he's going to do whatever he can to get back."

If required to deploy a deeper rotation of center options, Kidd is confident the team can turn to one of Markieff Morris, Dwight Powell, or P.J. Washington, depending on what the situation calls commands.

"Oklahoma's not a big team," Kidd said. "We can look at [Markieff Morris], [Dwight Powell], and [P.J. Washington], we got quite a few bigs that we can go to, so we're not short on bigs."

With Kleber out, the Mavericks will rely on their depth and versatility to overcome the loss and make a deep playoff run. Lively and Daniel Gafford have worked to adapt to handling stretch bigs like Chet Holmgren and may need to put it into practice more. If the team wants to mix up it coverage-wise against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, perhaps they will need to play closer to the level of screens and perhaps consider switching or blitzing.

"We've got to be able to pick him up," Lively said. "We've got to take it game-by-game."

The Mavericks must adapt quickly, as Game 1 of the series against the Thunder starts on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. in Oklahoma.