Cisse's Minutes Are Up 13 a Night With a Teammate Out
A thin man in the middle is suddenly playing a starter's workload for Dallas, and the sample is still small.
Moussa Cisse is averaging 13 more minutes a night than usual over his last three games, with a Mavericks teammate out of the lineup. That is the number as of April 12, 2026, in the 2025-26 season.
Over those three games, Cisse played 27.3 minutes a night, roughly double his season average of 13.9. His scoring moved with it: 11.7 points a game over that stretch, against a season average of 4.5 across 38 games.
The jump lines up with an absence elsewhere on the roster, not a change in how Dallas views Cisse on his own merits. That distinction matters. A role built on someone else being out is a role that shrinks the moment that teammate returns.
For the extra minutes to hold, the teammate needs to stay out, and Cisse needs to keep producing enough to make benching him a hard call. For it to fade, all it takes is one healthy scratch report and a return to the rotation as it was. Three games is not enough to say which way this goes. It is enough to say Dallas has seen what Cisse can do with a bigger role, and that is worth watching the next time the Mavericks are shorthanded.