Mavericks notes: Salah Mejri comes up big in first NBA start

In his first NBA start Sunday, Dallas Mavericks center Salah Mejri was about as solid as a rock.

The 7-foot-2, 235-pound rookie from Tunisia scored 10 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked three shots in 29 eventful minutes against the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center.

When it was all over, and when the Rockets had peeled away with a 115-104 victory, teammate Chandler Parsons wanted to make sure this loss wasn’t pinned on anything Mejri did wrong.

“He played great,” Parsons said. “That one block was unbelievable.

“He’s got so much potential, he plays so hard, he’s so long, he can finish. He definitely wasn’t the problem tonight.”

Mejri’s “unbelievable” block came after he badly missed with a left-handed scoop shot with the Mavs ahead 45-42 and six minutes remaining in the first half. Instead of pouting, Mejri sped downcourt and went high to block a shot near the basket by James Harden.

That leap of faith brought the Mavs’ entire bench to its feet and was one of the highlights of an otherwise dreadful day for the Mavs.

“He played well, he competed,” forward Dirk Nowitzki said of Mejri. “He was using his length pretty well, he rolls to the basket pretty well, finishes in there ... .”

Mejri started in place of Zaza Pachulia, who missed Sunday’s game with an injury to his lower left leg.

“I tried to play with energy, I tried to protect the rim,” Mejri said. “I made a couple of mistakes. When you go more minutes to play, and there’s more chances to make mistakes.

“Overall, I think I had a good game. But the thing is we didn’t win.”

Mejri found out Sunday morning from coach Rick Carlisle that he was going to be making his first NBA start.

“Since the coach, [Sunday] morning, told me I was going to start I was thinking about it, I was making myself ready,” Mejri said. “I spoke to the coaches to help me with the plays, so I think I prepared myself well and the coaches prepared me, too.”

It all worked out, also, for Mejri’s family members and friends back in his native land of Tunisia.

Tunisia is seven hours ahead of Central Standard Time, so Mejri’s countrymen had been staying up for Mavs’ night home games that ended around 4:30 a.m. But Sunday afternoon’s game ended before midnight Tunisian time.

“It’s actually a big surprise to me when some people text me back home right after the game,” Mejri said, referring to those CST games that end before 10 p.m. “Over there it’s like 4 a.m. and that’s really late to go to sleep.

“They said we just stayed up to watch you play. Even when I was not playing people were texting me, ‘We were up watching you, and you are sitting on the bench and we wanted to see you.’ ”

Mavs owner Mark Cuban also wanted to see more of Mejri. On the court, that is.

“I’ve always been a Salah fan,” Cuban said. “I’ve actually put a bug in Rick’s ear a couple of times over the past couple of weeks to try to get him some more time.

“He’s offensively challenged in some respects, you can’t just give him the ball and expect things to happen. But he rolls [to the basket] hard, and as soon as guys get a better feel for him they’ll be able to [see] not only that he can he catch the ball on a pick-and-roll, but they can throw it up and he can dunk it on a lob, too.”

Mejri had three dunks Sunday. And the three blocks come on the heels of two Friday when he blocked Oklahoma City Thunder All-Stars Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant.

Add James Harden to that All-Star list.

“Hopefully he can continue to do it and continue to crack the rotation, because he just gives us another dimension,” point guard Deron Williams said of Mejri. “He protects the rim, he does a lot of good things offensively with thee offense.

“He hasn’t had much time to play with everybody. So if he continues, then who knows what can happen.”

Briefly

▪ Guard Devin Harris went out for good late in the second quarter with a sprained left big toe. It’s the same foot, but not the same toe, on which Harris had surgery two summers ago.

▪ The Mavs’ next game is Tuesday in Los Angeles against the Lakers. It will be their final game against Lakers superstar guard Kobe Bryant, who has announced he will retire after this season.

▪ Forward Jeremy Evans missed Sunday’s game with tendinitis in his right shoulder.

This story was originally published January 24, 2016 at 8:47 PM with the headline "Mavericks notes: Salah Mejri comes up big in first NBA start."