{"id":117764,"date":"2025-01-13T17:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T22:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=117764"},"modified":"2025-01-13T17:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T22:51:10","slug":"mavericks-kyrie-irving-injury-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/13\/mavericks-kyrie-irving-injury-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks Injury Update Could See Return of One Superstar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks received a positive medical report a day before a date with the\u00a0<\/span>Denver Nuggets<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/span><\/a>\u00a0has been sidelined for several weeks with no immediate return date known; that’s still bad news. As for the good news, the Mavericks upgraded\u00a0<\/span>Kyrie Irving<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on their injury report to questionable. While that does not guarantee he will lace up on Tuesday, it does speak to the fact that Irving is on the track back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mavericks Injury Update Could See Return of One Superstar<\/h2>\n

Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving Injury Update Presents Good News for Dallas<\/h3>\n

It’s been tough sledding for the Mavericks, who have gone 3-7 since their Christmas Day clash with the Minnesota Timberwolves. First, Don\u010di\u0107 went down, then Irving went down, and <\/span>then<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Daniel Gafford<\/span><\/a>\u00a0went down. Irving has missed the Mavs’ last five games. Yet, the team was surprisingly able to pick up two consecutive wins. Losing Kyrie was a critical loss; however, the Mavericks have managed to keep their heads above water for the most part despite their recent rash of injuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to TNT’s Jared Greenberg<\/span><\/a>, Kyrie’s injury status has been upgraded to questionable to return. This news has to inject some hope into the Mavs’ fans and the team. Even with Don\u010di\u0107 still on ice, having Kyrie on the floor significantly boosts the Mavs’ chances of winning each night. Greenberg also noted that Kyrie participated fully in a team practice today, leading up to meeting Denver tomorrow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mav’s Staying Above Water<\/h3>\n

Heading into a home game against the Nuggets on Tuesday, the Mavericks sit in the fifth spot in the West with a 22-17 record. While they’ve dropped a handful of games lately, they have maintained their current positioning. It helps that most of the current playoff-contending teams outside of the\u00a0<\/span>Oklahoma City Thunder<\/span><\/a>, Houston Rockets, and\u00a0<\/span>Memphis Grizzlies<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are collectively playing inconsistent basketball. Only the Nuggets have surpassed the Mavericks in recent days. Everyone else appears unable to string together multiple wins at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n

It may play out that Dallas could hold out just long enough to have their team back at full strength. Remember, last season, this Mavericks team represented the West in the NBA Finals. Relatively, the same team returned this season minus some role pieces but adding\u00a0<\/span>Klay Thompson<\/span><\/a>\u00a0simultaneously. Healthy and available, there’s no reason why the Mavericks can’t repeat last season’s run.<\/span><\/p>\n

Any Help Coming at the Trade Deadline?<\/h3>\n

The Mavericks will likely make a move or two in the coming weeks, so long as they can maintain a playoff spot until the trade deadline. They need to address their number four position, with\u00a0<\/span>Maxi Kleber<\/span><\/a>\u00a0underperforming and having a down year. If Dallas makes any trade, Kleber will likely be involved somehow. What has helped Dallas already is\u00a0<\/span>Dereck Livley’s<\/span><\/a>\u00a0emergence since Gafford’s injury. Lively has played exceptional basketball in his increased role.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suppose Kyrie is cleared to play, whether against Denver, New Orleans, or OKC\u2014all of whom Dallas faces this week. This development would put the Mavericks right back in the thick of things, hopefully winning games until Kyrie can be joined by Luka once again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks received a positive medical report a day before a date with the\u00a0Denver Nuggets.\u00a0Luka Don\u010di\u0107\u00a0has been sidelined for several weeks with no immediate return date known; that’s still bad news. As for the good news, the Mavericks upgraded\u00a0Kyrie Irving\u00a0on their injury report to questionable. While that does not guarantee he will lace up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":117772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[1608,30,62],"tags":[1453,4840,70,406,1133,2057],"class_list":["post-117764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-nba","tag-daniel-gafford","tag-dereck-lively-ii","tag-klay-thompson","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-luka-doncic","tag-maxi-kleber"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117764","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\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117764"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117776,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117764\/revisions\/117776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}