Irving’s absence isn’t the only lineup change for the Mavericks

SALT LAKE CITY – Changes, some by necessity, others by choice, came in droves Thursday night for the Mavericks.

First, Kyrie Irving became the latest addition to the injury list, sitting out against the Utah Jazz with a strained right shoulder. That lifted Quentin Grimes up into the starting lineup.

Coach Jason Kidd also wanted to switch things up with his big men, so Dereck Lively II and Maxi Kleber, returning from nine games on the shelf with a right hamstring strain, started in place of Daniel Gafford and Naji Marshall. PJ Washington remained out with a sprained right knee.

The results were mixed. The Mavericks got off to a solid start in the first quarter, but then laid a big egg in the third quarter, eventually dropping a 115-113 decision to the Jazz.

“I thought they did well,” coach Jason Kidd said of the new lineup. “D-Live got into bad trouble. It’s something we’ll watch on tape to see how he can improve. But I thought that group gave us some energy. We got off to a good start.”

That said, the lineup remains a work in progress.

“It’s fluid,” Kidd said. “Just by looking at the energy, I thought the group did a fantastic job. We won the first quarter. But as we recover, we will look at it again and there may be a change. Most likely there will be a change when PJ comes back.”

The Mavericks have used the next-man-up mantra early and often this season, but the mix makes it difficult to get any continuity going.

Still, there were good signs Thursday. Grimes had 15 points starting in place of Irving, and Marshall’s shift to the bench seemed to agree with him. He provided a spark with 19 points.

For Kleber, it was nice to be back on the field. Technically, he was cleared to play at the start of this trip on Sunday in Denver. But he wasn’t quite ready, and the Mavericks took the cautious route.

“Better every day obviously,” Kleber said. “I need to get the rhythm and everything back, but we did a lot of work to try to improve strength and endurance, so I feel better.”

Kleber said the three weeks on the sidelines weren’t a complete loss. He paid close attention to how the team played, especially in the last three games before Thursday, all close losses to teams with championship aspirations.

“I think we have a great team,” Kleber said. “Obviously we had a couple of tough losses, especially at the end of the game, but you can see the fight, even in games when we’re down, we fight back.

“So I think everything is there, we just need to clean up the little things against good teams, just things that we need to get on the same page. We’ve been talking a lot, doing a lot of video work, a lot of analyzing to find towards better solutions.”

And on Thursday, they adjusted 60 percent of the starting line-up.

Kidd said there was no significant concern that Irving’s shoulder would be any kind of long-term problem.

Drainage week: The three-game stretch that ended Thursday seemed especially long with two games close to start it, plus the crazy, emotional day in Golden State with Klay Thompson’s return to the Bay Area.

It can take a toll on a team.

Kidd said he and the coaching staff kept their fingers on the team’s pulse throughout it all.

“It’s ongoing, (monitoring) the emotions of sports or the game of basketball or life itself, because they’re human,” Kidd said. “We always talk about close games, being disappointed or being excited. But they also have things going on outside the arena. It is always monitored. They are not shared publicly, but we are talking about the game.

“This has been an emotional week, starting in Denver and having an opportunity to win there. And then the build-up to that game in Golden State with Klay. We might be a little more concerned with the mental fatigue, the physical fatigue. So we have to be careful about that because we understand that the league doesn’t stop, the games keep coming and we have to be prepared to try and win and put our best foot forward and win as many games as we can in during the game. But it’s been an emotional week for everyone.”

Pick your poison: Jazz coach Will Hardy was asked what kind of strategy he tries to use against Luka Dončić.

Basically, he said there is no good answer to that question.

“We’ve felt in the past that the more we can keep Luka on the edge, the better,” Hardy said. “A team that beats you with a lot of jump shots, you can kind of live with.

“The games where the Mavs have really hurt us in the past are when we see seven, eight dunks from guys like Gafford, Lively. When you couple that with the special shotmaking that’s on the Mavericks’ roster, you’re not taking anything away .”

Aside from making Dončić and Thompson work hard for their shots, Hardy said you just have to live with the results, realizing that sometimes special players make special plays.

X: @ESefko