In the first meeting between these two teams on the season, the Thunder seek to bounce back from its Friday night loss amid several injuries.

The Oklahoma City Thunder return home to start a three-game homestand when they host the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. It's the season's first matchup between the squads. The Thunder (34-7) look to return to wins.

The Dallas Mavericks (22-19) host the red-hot Oklahoma City Thunder (34-6) in American Airlines Center on Friday night. Dallas is coming off yet another painful loss, this time to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Even without important pieces like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein and Dereck Lively II, both teams' role players simmered the beef between the ball clubs. The usually well-mannered Thunder were hit with multiple technical fouls. PJ Washington continued to poke the bear.

That decision forced the Thunder to stick close to the Mavericks' role players throughout the first quarter. Once Washington scored the first five points, Irving asserted himself and drained a 3-pointer before finishing at the basket with a finger roll to give the Mavericks an early 10-0 lead.

The Dallas Mavericks got the upper hand on the Oklahoma City Thunder for the second time this season, though it was undermanned.

DALLAS (AP) — Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s leading scorer at 31.6 points per game, missed his first game of the season against the Dallas Mavericks with a sore right wrist. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Gilgeous-Alexander arrived at American Airlines Center and mentioned the injury.

Kyrie Irving scored 25 points, Spencer Dinwiddie and P.J. Washington Jr. added 16 apiece and the Dallas Mavericks beat Oklahoma City 106-98 Friday night as Thunder All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander missed his first game of the season.