The Dallas Mavericks have been ravaged by injuries in recent weeks, and two more of their players went down during Monday’s game against the Sacramento Kings. The Mavericks lost Kyrie Irving in the first quarter and Jaden Hardy in the third, and their injury report is getting longer and longer by the minute.
Let’s take a look at all of their players who are currently sidelined.
– Dereck Lively III: Ankle
– Caleb Marin: Hip
– Anthony Davis: Adductor
– Daniel Gafford: Knee
– P.J. Washington: Ankle
– Kyrie Irving: Knee
– Jaden Hardy: Ankle
The first to go down was sophomore center Dereck Lively II, who suffered what first appeared to be an ankle sprain on Jan. 14 against the Denver Nuggets. An MRI revealed later, however, that Lively had a stress fracture in his right ankle.
Lively was expected to miss 2-3 months with this injury, but we did get a positive update in February. Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd revealed the big man is out of his walking boot and is set to be re-evaluated on March 6.
Another member of the Mavericks who has been on the sidelines since January is Caleb Martin, who was acquired on Feb. 4 from the Philadelphia 76ers. Martin suffered a hip strain against the New Orleans Pelicans on Jan. 10 and has not even been able to make his debut for his new team. He appears to be close to a return to the court, though, as he has been playing in practice.
While Martin wasn’t able to make his Mavericks debut after arriving via trade, Anthony Davis did. The problem, though, is that he suffered a left adductor strain on his debut against the Houston Rockets on Feb. 8 and has been out since. Davis is set to be re-evaluated this week, so we should get an update on his status soon enough.
Things went from bad to worse for the Mavericks just a couple of days after Davis went down. Daniel Gafford suffered a knee injury on Feb. 10 against the Kings, which was later revealed to be a Grade 3 right MCL sprain. He was set to be out for at least six weeks and is another who is scheduled for re-evaluation soon.
We next get to P.J. Washington, who played more recently than any of the four we’d mentioned earlier. Washington has been dealing with an ankle injury in recent weeks and suffered a setback when he returned in Saturday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Washington only lasted 15 minutes before he had to leave and admitted postgame that he might have come back too soon. He didn’t play against the Kings on Monday, and it remains to be seen how much longer he’ll be out.
As for the latest injuries, there is no update on how long Irving and Hardy will be out. Kyrie sprained his left knee in the first quarter against the Kings, while Hardy sprained his right ankle in the third. Neither was able to return, and the Mavericks would be hoping they aren’t gone for too long.
With all these injuries, you certainly wouldn’t be surprised if the Mavericks continue to struggle to win games. They lost 122-98 to the Kings and have now tasted defeat in four of their last five games to drop to 32-30. Following this latest loss, Kidd spoke about the injury crisis when asked about his thoughts on Irving’s injury.
“Just unlucky, hope that he’s healthy and it’s not serious,” Kidd said. “The injuries that we’ve had this season, guys are trying to hold it together. You get other bodies back, and it just seems that every time we’re close to getting someone back, someone goes down. And tonight both Hardy and Kyrie go down and so we’re running out of bodies here, but guys keep fighting.”
The Mavericks players are giving their all out there, but there’s only so much a team ravaged by injuries can do. They are now 10th in the West and are at risk of missing even the Play-in Tournament. The Mavericks face the Bucks at Fiserv Forum next on Wednesday at 8 PM ET, and you wouldn’t like their chances of getting a win there, either.
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