Kyrie Irving Scores 17 in His First Game in 586 Days as Dallas Win in Macao

Kyrie Irving’s return lasted one play before it stopped looking like a comeback and started looking like a resumption. Dallas called the opening possession for him on Sunday in Macao, his first game in 586 days, and he drove past Jabari Smith Jr. for a reverse layup in front of a sellout crowd at the Venetian Arena, ESPN reports. He finished with a team-high 17 points in 22 minutes as the Mavericks beat the Houston Rockets 132-115, in the second game of a China trip that had already given Dallas a practice session where Naji Marshall broke a rim and a folding chair.

What happened in Irving’s first game since March 2025?

A controlled, effective return, not a ceremonial one. Irving scored 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting, went 3-of-3 from the line, and added three assists and two rebounds with no turnovers in 22 minutes, Pro Football Network reports. He had 14 points by half-time, ESPN reports, after sitting out Friday’s opener against the same Rockets, a 135-117 Houston win, as part of the plan to ease him back. For a point guard whose game is built on handle and change of pace, the zero in the turnover column after 19 months out is the number that travels.

Why did the return take 586 days?

Because the ACL was only the first problem. Irving tore the ligament in his left knee on March 3, 2025, against Sacramento, landing awkwardly after his right foot came down on an opponent’s foot, Pro Football Network reports. He stayed in to take his free throws, then left in tears, and missed the rest of that season. This week he revealed a second setback: a Grade 2 calf strain in December interrupted the rehabilitation, delayed it by roughly eight weeks, and factored into ruling him out for the whole of last season after the All-Star break, ESPN reports. The 586 days are therefore not one recovery. They are two, run back to back.

What did the people around him say?

That the work showed. Head coach Dusty May said he did not expect Irving to play this well after so long away, given the rhythm of the game, and credited his work, ESPN reports. May has also described Irving’s feel for the game in musical terms, as an artist and a jazz musician who manipulates a game as he reads it, Pro Football Network reports. Across the floor, Houston coach Ime Udoka said Irving is back to being who he is and will only get better as real games restore his rhythm, ESPN reports. Irving himself said there were a lot of emotions before the game, that he was grateful the first play was called for him, and that performing at a high level again felt amazing, ESPN reports.

Why does a preseason game in Macao matter this much?

Because of what was paired inside it. This was also Irving’s first game alongside Cooper Flagg, the reigning Rookie of the Year, ESPN reports, and the two produced the game’s signature sequences: a full-court Flagg pass for an Irving layup, then a Flagg chase-down block that Irving finished with a pull-up three. Dallas’s season turns on whether that pairing is real, and Sunday was its first evidence. The wider preseason has been running on moments like this, from a guard playing 43 minutes on an Exhibit 10 deal to Embiid’s fall into Jaylen Brown on a lineup-debut night: small samples, large implications.

What happens next for Irving?

More minutes, carefully. One appearance does not prove a full return to his previous level, and the Mavericks will still need to manage his workload as the regular season approaches, Pro Football Network notes. He sat out Friday by design, played 22 minutes on Sunday, and the pattern across Dallas’s remaining preseason games will say more than any single stat line. What Sunday settled is narrower and still significant: after 586 days, two injuries and a lost season, Irving can still be handed the first play of a game and finish it.