DALLAS — Moments before the home team was introduced on Monday night, Kristaps Porzingis made his usual walk behind the scorer’s table to take a seat on the Dallas Mavericks’ bench at American Airlines Center.

Wearing a three-piece olive suit and a maroon tie, Porzingis saluted a friendly face in the crowd and proceeded to what has become his customary vantage point. It was Porzingis’s 13th home game as a spectator since Dallas acquired him from the Knicks on Feb. 1, as he continues to recover from a serious knee injury he sustained in February 2018.

Porzingis, in other words, projected normalcy in his first public appearance since it emerged that he is under investigation by law enforcement authorities in New York City over an accusation that he sexually assaulted a woman there.

As the Mavericks reveled in an unforeseen 16 points and 14 rebounds from the reserve center Salah Mejri, Porzingis was right in the heart of multiple bench celebrations. Coach Rick Carlisle had given Porzingis the option of taking personal time away from the team to escape the glare of the spotlight, but Porzingis declined. He wants to keep practicing, Carlisle said, and uphold his rooting routine through the final five games of the Mavericks’ third successive season of missing the playoffs.