Mavericks rookie Dennis Smith Jr returns to lineup against Golden State

Rookie guard Dennis Smith Jr. will be back in the lineup when the Dallas Mavericks (0-3) host the Golden State Warriors (1-2) at the American Airlines Center. Tipoff is 7:30 p.m.

Smith missed the previous two games due to mild knee swelling. And considering Dallas will be without guards Devin Harris (family death) and Seth Curry(knee stress fracture), his return couldn’t have come at a better time. In his debut against the Atlanta Hawks, Smith Jr. had a hard time containing point guard Dennis Schroder (28 points). Things won’t get any easier as he will spend much of tonight dealing with one of the league’s best players in Warriors’ guard Stephen Curry.

Curry, Iguodala fined

Curry avoided a suspension after he might or might not have thrown his mouthpiece at an official in his team’s road loss to the Grizzlies on Saturday night.

However, Cury was fined $50,000 by the league for throwing it in the direction of the official. As part of the same incident, Warriors forward Andre Iguodala has been fined $15,000 for verbally abusing a game official.

Cuban talk

In a Monday interview with the Shan & RJ program on 105.3 The Fan, Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban acknowledged fans had the right to disagree with his team-building approach.

He then went onto throw praise on rookie point guard Dennis Smith Jr.

“We ended up getting what we thought was the best was one of the top three players in the draft and somebody who has a chance, I'm not saying it's a guarantee, but has a chance to be a superstar,” Cuban told the radio hosts.

This story was originally published October 23, 2017 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Mavericks rookie Dennis Smith Jr returns to lineup against Golden State."