{"id":27712,"date":"2019-12-16T08:58:46","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T13:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=27712"},"modified":"2019-12-16T10:30:52","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T15:30:52","slug":"dallas-mavericks-luka-doncic-suffers-ankle-sprain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2019\/12\/16\/dallas-mavericks-luka-doncic-suffers-ankle-sprain\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks&#8217; Luka Doncic Suffers Ankle Sprain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/dallas-mavericks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dallas Mavericks<\/a> superstar<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Doncic<\/a><\/strong> sustained an ankle sprain during the opening minutes of Saturday&#8217;s game against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/miami-heat\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miami Heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to ESPN&#8217;s Tim MacMahon, Doncic suffered a moderate ankle right sprain. While X-rays on the ankle read negative, Doncic&#8217;s timetable for return is a few weeks. The ankle sprain occurred at the 10:32 mark in the first quarter, as Doncic stepped on Heat guard <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nunnke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kendrick Nunn&#8217;s<\/a><\/strong> foot attempting to drive to the basket.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Luka Doncic might be able to return within a couple of weeks after suffering a moderate right ankle sprain last night, sources told ESPN. Doncic likely misses upcoming stretch vs. East power (Bucks, Celtics, 76ers and Raptors this week), but Mavs feel they dodged a bullet.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/espn_macmahon\/status\/1206270174028091392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 15, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Dallas Mavericks&#8217; Luka Doncic Suffers Ankle Sprain, Could Miss Multiple Weeks<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>The Impact of Luka Doncic\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The 20-year-old forward has established an MVP candidate season thus far, averaging 29 points, 8 assists, and 9 rebounds. Doncic currently leads the league in triple-doubles and became the second-youngest player in history to record a 40 point triple-double.<\/p>\n<p>Only into his sophomore NBA season, Doncic has quickly made his name rise to other players like<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lebron James<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/antetgi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Giannis Antetokoumpo<\/a><\/strong>, and<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardeja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> James Harden<\/a><\/strong>. He also has the highest usage rate among these players, as he is the number one option for the Mavericks&#8217; success. Dallas, who is pushing to be a strong contender in the Western Conference now has to deal with an unexpected nightmare that now opens up multiple questions as to how they can move forward.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>It&#8217;s not Time for the Dallas Mavericks to Hit the Panic Button<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Considering that Doncic&#8217;s injury timetable is a few weeks, he could return soon before Christmas Day.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to note that although the Mavericks lost 118-112 in overtime against the Heat Saturday, they managed to fight back and put up a great effort.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardati02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tim Hardaway Jr.<\/a> <\/strong>scored 28 points, shooting 6-of-14 from three and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/porzikr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is<\/a> <\/strong>put up a double-double in the game.<\/p>\n<p>When it&#8217;s down to the wire, coach Rick Carlisle will gather up the tools the Mavericks need to win games.<\/p>\n<p>Even without Doncic, Dallas still has Porzi\u0146\u0123is,\u00a0 who has been looking more comfortable after his injury. Porzingis, along with the multitude of guards like<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bareajo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">J.J. Barea<\/a> <\/strong>and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/curryse01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seth Curry<\/a><\/strong>, the Mavericks will still be able to maintain enough offense to keep them high within the West for weeks to come.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"ofg1yZVvRhpcJFT-5MASgg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7;text-decoration: none;font-weight: normal !important;border: none\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1184284918\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:&#8217;ofg1yZVvRhpcJFT-5MASgg&#8217;,sig:&#8217;AbmjG_zv6O6XcT1KVThMG3zAHIgrkZFQbVN2YBG-b_s=&#8217;,w:&#8217;594px&#8217;,h:&#8217;396px&#8217;,items:&#8217;1184284918&#8242;,caption: true ,tld:&#8217;com&#8217;,is360: false })});<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic sustained an ankle sprain during the opening minutes of Saturday&#8217;s game against the Miami Heat. According to ESPN&#8217;s Tim MacMahon, Doncic suffered a moderate ankle right sprain. While X-rays on the ankle read negative, Doncic&#8217;s timetable for return is a few weeks. The ankle sprain occurred at the 10:32 mark [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2853,"featured_media":27740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[62,1608,30],"tags":[175,1133,96],"class_list":["post-27712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-mavericks","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba"],"modified_by":"Loreal Nix","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27712","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\/2853"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}