The Dallas Mavericks cannot afford more injuries, not to mention a player as important as Kyrie Irving, so they will have to keep their breath and hope that the knee injury that IRVING suffered on Monday evening against the Kings is not as bad as it looks.
At the end of the first quarter, Irving rolled in the middle of the track and seemed to hit the knees with the great man Jonas Valančiūnas, but the worrying part of the room was Irving’s next step where you can see his loop of the left knee.
After Irving stayed in the match to shoot his two free throws – heading to the line with the help of Anthony Davis and a member of the Mavericks staff after staying on the field for several minutes – he headed directly in the locker room and was quickly excluded for the rest of the game with a left knee entrance.
This recalls too much Kobe Bryant to box the free throw line with a rupture of Achilles in 2013. The Mavericks (32-29) and their fans can only hope that the initial diagnosis of a sprain is correct, but even it could be a big problem for a team of Dallas already hampered, because it is fighting for the positioning in eliminatory series in the last five weeks of the season.
Knee sprains can prevent a player from going out for a wide range of deadlines, depending on the severity and the exact type of sprain. The Mavericks cannot afford an prolonged absence of Irving, a star of nine times which has an average of 25 points per game. They are already without the services of Davis, which has been acquired in the trade of Luka Dončić, as well as Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively III.
In addition, PJ Washington left Saturday’s match against Milwaukee with an ankle injury and did not play on Monday. Caleb Martin, whom the Mavericks acquired almost a month ago on the deadline for trade, has not even adapted to the team yet due to a hip injury.
The Mavericks hope for good news this week while Davis, Lively and Gafford should be reassessed on Thursday. Davis left the only match he played with the Mavericks on February 8 due to a groin injury. There is hope that Davis could be back soon, but if he comes back just when Irving will come out for his own lack of injury, it somehow beats the goal of Dončić’s trade … Not that there was even a little justification for this business to start.
CBS Sports will continue to update this story as more information about Irving’s injury will become available.
