A week after tearing his right hamstring in practice, the Dallas Mavericks announced Tuesday that big man Maxi Kleber had surgery and will begin rehab immediately. Last week, The Athletic's Shams Charania reported last week that Kleber would be sidelined for 6-8 weeks and characterized the injury as a sprained knee. According to the team, there is no timetable for his return.
Dallas has lost five of its last seven games and dipped below .500 with a 116-106 loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, in which superstar Luka Doncic and coach Jason Kidd were both ejected. As a result of Dwight Powell's quad injury, the Mavs had started Doncic and big man Christian Wood together for the first time this season against Minnesota.
That duo is difficult to defend and, when it has been on the court, Dallas has outscored opponents by 6.0 points per 100 possessions, but it remains to be seen how successful it can be without Kleber holding things together.
Kleber was an enormous part of the Mavs' five-out formula last season for the same reasons that Kidd has liked to attach him to Wood this year: He can space the floor and he's a versatile defender. In the 207 minutes that the Doncic-Wood tandem has shared with Kleber, Dallas has scored 121.5 points per 100 possessions with a plus-10.6 net rating; in the 221 minutes that the tandem has played without Kleber, the Mavs have a plus-2.4 net rating. Predictably, without Kleber, the offense has been elite, but the defense has been much worse.
Dallas' defense ranks 16th in the NBA after 31 games. Last season, it was seventh. Being without Kleber for the foreseeable future does not help matters.
