DALLAS — Klay Thompson’s first real game with the Dallas Mavericks couldn’t have gone much better. The start to San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama’s second pro season, on the other hand, wasn’t so good.
Thompson, co-author of the Splash Brothers dynasty with the Golden State Warriors, splashed six 3-pointers with his new team in a 120-109 win for the Mavericks over the Spurs. Luka Dončić led the defending Western Conference champions with 28 points, while Wembanyama shot just 5-of-18 for 17 points in the Spurs’ loss.
Thompson, 34, joined the Mavs on a three-year, $50 million contract as part of a six-team sign-and-trade deal after 13 seasons, five All-Star appearances and six finals trips with the Warriors. He finished Game 1 for the Mavs with 22 points and seven rebounds, connecting on 7-of-13 from the field, including those half-dozen 3s.
His only 2-pointer of the night came on his first shot, one of his famous pump fakes off the 3-point line into the mid range for a jumper.
After struggling to shoot in a 4-1 series loss to the Boston Celtics in the previous NBA Finals, adding a shooter of Thompson’s caliber was Dallas’ top priority. There are only 81 games and two months of playoffs to go before we see if the plan produces the team’s desired goal, but the first step taken inside American Airlines Arena was a positive one.
Thompson is a career 41 percent shooter from 3-point range, owns the fourth-most 3s in NBA history and, as recently as 2023, led the league in 3s in a single season.
His first 3 as a Maverick — a stepback bomb in the corner we saw countless times during his decade of greatness with the Warriors — came on a pass from Dončić and made it easy to envision how dangerous the Mavs’ offense can be with a floor spacer like Thompson added to the Dallas’ other high-octane offensive talents.
Kyrie Irving, one of those stars, added 15 points on 6-of-17 shooting. Dončić is a perennial MVP candidate with the Mavs, and while he had his typical stat stuffer of a game (10 rebounds and 8 assists), he struggled to the tune of 9-of-25 shooting.
Thursday night marked the first time Irving, Thompson and Dončić played together after Dončić didn’t appear in any of Dallas’ preseason games.
Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 French sensation and reigning Rookie of the Year, added nine boards and one block to his total. He missed several layups and tap-ins at the rim, was 3-of-16 at one point from the floor, and finished the game just 1-of-8 from 3-point.
Wembanyama mostly struggled in his season debut last year as a rookie, against the Mavs of all teams, when he scored just six points and recorded five fouls through three quarters. He got it together in short order and went on to lead all rookies in scoring (21.4), rebounds (10.6) and blocks (3.6) per game in 71 games for the Spurs.
He also was the league’s top shot blocker — joining Manute Bol as the only rookies ever to lead the league in blocks — and as a result is a finalist for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year honor, which will be announced Tuesday.
Wembanyama became the first player in league history to score at least 1,500 points (1,522), corral 700 rebounds (755), dish out 250 assists (274) and block 250 shots (254) while making at least 100 3s (128) in a season.
The Spurs opened last season as the league’s youngest team and wound up with 22 wins. They took the floor as a much older group, thanks to the offseason acquisitions of Harrison Barnes (who won a championship with Thompson and the Warriors in 2015) and Chris Paul.
Barnes connected on his first five shots and finished with 17 points, while Paul added three points, seven boards and eight assists in his Spurs debut.
This story will be updated.
(Photo: Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)
