The last time these two faced off against each other, the Dallas Mavericks dominated the Indiana Pacers from start to finish. In Indiana's home opener --and Haliburton's official return to playing in front of Pacers fans since the NBA Finals-- the Mavericks came out and punched them in the mouth and led by as many as 37 in the first half.

It was really an embarassing performance from the blue and gold and things got extremely chippy. As the first half was coming to a close, the Pacers committed another turnover and Aaron Nesmith booked it back on defense and gave Cooper Flagg a hard foul to keep him from scoring an easy two. The foul was called upgraded to a Flagrant 1 and Flagg did not return to the game.

Thankfully, Flagg wasn't severely hurt as he was able to return to action after missing an additional game. But, it was still unfortunate to see him get hurt and it caused a confrontation between Nesmith and Naji Marshall to go down.

There was no love lost between these two, and Monday night's game could lead to another physical matchup.

Here are three things you need to know about the upcoming game.

1. Dallas playing on the second night of a back-to-back, will Irving play?

The Mavericks played against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, putting them on shorter rest than the Pacers. Indiana could use this to their advantage as they traveled from Mexico City to Dallas after the conclusion of their game Saturday.

The Pacers have not submitted their injury report for the game against Dallas tomorrow, but they had just three players on the injury report against Denver: Tyrese Haliburton, Ben Sheppard and Johnny Furphy.

Dallas set out Derrick Lively II, Sergio de Larrea and Tarik Biberovic against Brooklyn. Of note, Kyrie Irving did sit out the second game of the Mavericks only back-to-back this season. He rested against the Kings at home last Monday, but it resulted in a loss and gave the Kings their only win of the season. Resting Irving against Indiana would be a significant loss for Dallas, especially with de Larrea out.

2. Success for Carlisle and Pacers in Dallas

Since the Pacers traded for Haliburton, they have won 3 of the last 4 matchups in Dallas --but have won all their matchups in the lone star state with he plays. Unfortuantely, Haliburton is still out, but last season's loss without him came down to the wire as Nemsith missed the game-winning three, giving the Mac McClung Pacers their fourth conescutive loss of the season.

Both rosters look much different than the last few times they played in Dallas, but this is an arena where we have seen the Pacers offense really come to life. Indiana could use a night where they see a strong percentage of their shots fall and they have extra motivation to get one back against Dallas after their lackluster performance in the home opener.

In their last three wins in Dallas they scored 124, 134 and 137 points. Toppin and McConnell have really performed well off the bench in Dallas, while Siakam and Nembhard have shot well but allowed for others to lead the team in scoring. Siakam is struggling from three and Nembhard is coming off his worst shooting performance of the season, so a positive shooting night could go a long way.

3. Aaron Nesmith needs a breakout game

Nesmith will likely have a lot of Mavericks fans rooting against him after he fouled Flagg hard in their home opener and caused him to miss Dallas' home opener against San Antonio.

Last season, Nesmith went a horrific 2-16 from the field and 1-9 from three in this arena. He was the Pacers second best player on the roster and they really needed more from him --but scoring on his own is something he struggles with. This early portion of the season has been a lot of the same from the early part of last year. He is shooting a poor percentage from outside and the field in general, while having a limited impact in other areas.

The Pacers really need for him to break out of this slump as they continue to get back to full strength.

Where to Watch

You can watch tonight’s game on the Pacers Streaming service of DAZN or on NBA League Pass. 

The radio broadcast will be aired on 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan and can also be heard on NBA League Pass. 

Tonight’s game tips at 8:00 PM EST. 

You can follow me on X @AlexGoldenNBA and listen to my daily podcast, Setting The Pace, wherever you get your podcasts.