The Dallas Mavericks will be without Kyrie Irving for the rest of the season, as the star guard tore his left ACL against the Sacramento Kings on Monday, the team announced a day later.
Irving, 32 will finish the season having played in 50 games, with averages of 24.7 points (on 59.4% true shooting), 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists.
The nine-time All-Star suffered the injury on a drive late in the first quarter. He stayed in the game to shoot his two free throws — hobbling his way to the line with the help of Anthony Davis and a Mavericks employee after staying down on the court for several minutes — then headed to the locker room and was quickly ruled out for the remainder of the game with what the team initially termed a left knee sprain.
Irving taking the free throws was reminiscent of Kobe Bryant limping to the line with a ruptured Achilles in 2013.
Monday’s loss dropped the Mavericks to 32-30, putting them in the No. 10 spot in the West. Dallas has a 3 ½-game cushion on the Phoenix Suns for the final play-in spot, but its latest injury will make qualifying for the playoffs much more challenging than it already was.
“The injuries that we’ve had this season, guys are trying to hold it together to get other bodies back,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd told reporters Monday. “And it just seems every time we’re getting close to getting somebody back, someone goes down. We’re running out of bodies here, but guys keep fighting.”
Dallas is already without the services of Davis, who was acquired in the blockbuster Luka Dončić trade, as well as Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II. In addition, PJ Washington exited Saturday’s game vs. Milwaukee with an ankle injury and didn’t play on Monday. Caleb Martin, acquired by the Mavs at the trade deadline, hasn’t even suited up for the team yet due to a hip injury.
Davis, Lively and Gafford are all set to be reevaluated on Thursday. Davis left the only game he played with the Mavericks on Feb. 8 because of a groin injury.
There’s hope that Davis could be back soon, but now that Irving is done for the season, the Dončić trade looks even more shortsighted … not that there was even a smidge of justification for that trade to begin with.
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