{"id":116426,"date":"2025-01-06T15:55:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T20:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=116426"},"modified":"2025-01-06T15:55:16","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T20:55:16","slug":"dallas-mavericks-get-more-bad-news-kyrie-irving-injury-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/06\/dallas-mavericks-get-more-bad-news-kyrie-irving-injury-front\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks Get More Bad News On the Injury Front"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/27\/mavericks-luka-doncic-injury\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Dallas Mavericks<\/a>, the reigning Western Conference champions, are currently 20-15. While this is not a bad record by any means, it is a bit disappointing given Dallas&#8217; recent cold streak. Despite being 16-8 at one point, the Mavericks are 4-7 since then. Additionally, they are now on a four-game losing streak and have lost five of their last six. The Mavericks own the No. 6 seed in the West. However, they are slowly falling out of the playoff picture. Much of this has to do with the absence of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a>, who has missed the team&#8217;s last five games and will likely miss at least most of January. Unfortunately for the Mavericks, their injury luck is only getting worse. According to ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/irvinky01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyrie Irving<\/a> suffered a back injury and will be re-evaluated in 1-2 weeks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving has a bulging disc in his back and is expected to miss at least 1 to 2 weeks, sources tell me and <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/espn_macmahon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@espn_macmahon<\/a>. There is optimism that treatment over the coming days will provide a return to play target date. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HuNjAadyMi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/HuNjAadyMi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1876357736637833227?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 6, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Dallas Mavericks Get More Bad News On the Injury Front<\/h2>\n<h3>Losing Kyrie Irving to Injury Is Far from Ideal<\/h3>\n<p>Losing Irving for any period of time is a difficult task to overcome as it is. It is especially more difficult with Doncic on the sidelines and the team starting in the midst of a losing streak. In his absence, the Mavericks will have to rely more heavily on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompkl01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Klay Thompson<\/a>, who is having arguably the worst campaign of his career.<\/p>\n<p>Through 30 games this season, Irving is averaging 24.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.2 steals. He is also shooting 49% from the field and 44.1% from beyond the arc. It will be difficult for Dallas to replace his presence, especially with Doncic on the sidelines. Fortunately for the team, Irving&#8217;s injury does not seem too serious.<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>The Mavericks will have a difficult schedule ahead of them in the next couple of weeks. They are set to take on the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/06\/memphis-grizzlies-cam-johnson\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/06\/los-angeles-lakers-could-get-reinforcements-soon-jarred-vanderbilt-injury\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/04\/first-quarter-killing-denver-nuggets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Denver Nuggets<\/a> (twice), <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/06\/okc-thunder-defense\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> (twice), <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/01\/new-years-check-in-on-the-minnesota-timberwolves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/04\/kristaps-porzingis-injury-comments\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Boston Celtics<\/a> through the following weeks. The Mavericks will likely be without Doncic for this entire slate. However, according to Charania&#8217;s report, Irving could make his return in a week.<\/p>\n<p>As it stands, the Mavericks still look like a legitimate title contender once again. Despite their slump, they rank as the fifth-best offensive and 12th-best defensive team in the league. Once they get fully healthy, they should be able to turn things around and remind everybody they were in the NBA Finals less than a year ago. However, until they get there, it is crucial for the team to stay afloat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dallas Mavericks, the reigning Western Conference champions, are currently 20-15. While this is not a bad record by any means, it is a bit disappointing given Dallas&#8217; recent cold streak. Despite being 16-8 at one point, the Mavericks are 4-7 since then. Additionally, they are now on a four-game losing streak and have lost [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":116429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,30,2,62],"tags":[406],"class_list":["post-116426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-featured","category-nba","tag-kyrie-irving"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116440,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116426\/revisions\/116440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}