Luka Doncic May Not Be Ready For Playoff Opener
There’s “a lot of skepticism” that Mavericks star Luka Doncic will be available for Game 1 of their playoff series with the Jazz, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said tonight on “NBA Countdown” (video link).
Doncic suffered a strained left calf Sunday in Dallas’ final regular season game. The Mavericks aren’t required to submit an injury report until Friday, so there may be no official word until then, but Wojnarowski said the outlook seems pessimistic that Doncic will play in the Saturday afternoon game.
Sources tell Wojnarowski that Doncic’s injury is “more than just a mild calf strain.” He’s expected to do everything be can to be ready, but Woj cautions that it’s the type of injury that can be aggravated if it’s not fully healed.
He adds that Dallas is facing the possibility that Doncic may miss Monday night’s Game 2 as well.
“If this was the regular season, you wouldn’t even be talking about him possibly playing this weekend,” Wojnarowski said, while adding that he expects a final decision on Doncic’s availability for Game 1 to go “down to the wire” Friday or Saturday.
The Mavericks and Jazz will have two days off after Game 2, so Doncic will have a cushion to recover before the series shifts to Utah. Any games that Doncic misses could have a profound impact on the series, as he put up All-Star numbers again this season, averaging 28.4 points, 9.1 rebounds and 8.7 assists in 65 games.
Lakers Notes: Monk, Westbrook, LeBron, Pelinka
The Lakers will likely make a strong effort to retain Malik Monk this summer, but they only hold Monk’s Non-Bird rights and would have to dip into their mid-level exception to sign the 24-year-old to a deal worth more than about $2.5MM. Even a deal using the taxpayer mid-level couldn’t start at more than about $6.4MM.
The Lakers’ cap limitations could open the door for another team to sign the former lottery pick, who will be an unrestricted free agent after enjoying a career year in Los Angeles. According to Sean Deveney of Heavy.com, sources around the league believe Monk could get the equivalent of the full non-taxpayer MLE ($10MM+ per year) on the open market.
One general manager who spoke to Deveney speculated that the Bulls, Cavaliers, and Mavericks will be suitors for Monk this offseason and also singled out the Knicks as a team to keep an eye on.
“The team to watch, if he is going to leave the Lakers, which he obviously should, is the Knicks,” the executive said. “They had interest in him last year, and some of it might depend on what happens with Evan Fournier, do they keep him or move him? But that is a team that needs talent, needs shooters and Monk will be a good value even at the mid-level.”
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report considers six hypothetical Russell Westbrook trade scenarios and evaluates which of them are the most realistic — and which would appeal most to the Lakers.
- Westbrook exhibited a lack of self awareness during his end-of-season press conference on Monday, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, who says the point guard doubled down on past excuses and created new ones to absolve himself of responsibility for his disappointing season. “The famous ‘source’ stories that came out about myself, whether it be between me and the staff, me and Frank (Vogel), me and the fans, there’s just so many made-up stories that are not true,” Westbrook said, though he declined to give specific examples. “It’s just always having to fight against that constantly. It’s just not (being) given a fair chance.”
- In a column for The Los Angeles Times, Dylan Hernandez argues that LeBron James also didn’t accept enough responsibility for the Lakers’ struggles in 2021/22. While multiple reports have suggested that James and Anthony Davis played major roles in orchestrating the trade for Westbrook last summer, LeBron downplayed his involvement in roster moves. “Ask me my opinion, I’m going to give my opinion,” he said. “But at the end of the day, they’re going to make the decision that they feel is best for the franchise.”
- Conversely, in his own media exit interview, VP of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka made himself more accountable than he has in the past, though he didn’t look comfortable doing so, writes Bill Oram of The Athletic. Pelinka has two years left on his current contract with the Lakers, sources tell Oram, who says the GM is under significant pressure not to repeat this season’s disaster in 2022/23.
And-Ones: Monthly Awards, Hollis-Jefferson, Cooper
Rockets guard Jalen Green and Raptors forward Scottie Barnes were named the Rookies of the Month for March/April in the Western Conference and Eastern Conference, respectively, the NBA announced on Monday (via Twitter).
Green got off to an up-and-down start this season but finished strong, averaging 22.6 PPG, 3.8 RPG, and 3.2 APG on .484/.395/.763 shooting in 22 games in March and April. Barnes helped the Raptors secure the No. 5 seed in the East by putting up 16.6 PPG, 7.6 RPG, and 4.0 APG on 50.5% shooting in his last 22 contests.
The NBA also announced its Coaches of the Month for March/April on Tuesday (Twitter link). Mavericks coach Jason Kidd won the Western award for a 16-5 run to the end of the season; Ime Udoka, whose Celtics finished with a 15-4 stretch, earned the honor in the East.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Veteran forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson has signed with Atléticos de San Germán, the Puerto Rican club announced on Monday (via Twitter). A former NBA first-round pick, Hollis-Jefferson played for Brooklyn, Toronto, and Portland from 2015-21, but spent most of the 2021/22 season in Turkey with Beşiktaş.
- ESPN writers Bobby Marks, Kevin Pelton, and Mike Schmitz (Insider link) ranked the NBA’s top 25 players under age 25 based on long-term potential, while The Athletic’s James L. Edwards III and Mike Vorkunov each picked a 15-man squad of under-age-25 players. Mavericks guard Luka Doncic topped ESPN’s list, followed by Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Grizzlies guard Ja Morant.
- Former NBA player and longtime Kings executive Wayne Cooper has passed away at age 65, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Cooper appeared in a total of 984 regular season games for Golden State, Utah, Dallas, Portland, and Denver from 1978-92, then served as Sacramento’s VP of basketball operations from 1997-2013.
Injury Updates: Doncic, Allen, Kennard, Collins, Niang
The Mavericks put out a press release on Tuesday formally confirming that Luka Doncic is dealing with a strained left calf and announcing there’s no timetable for his return.
Dallas won’t have to officially list Doncic on the injury report until Friday, so the club will likely continue to be cagey about his availability for Game 1 vs. Utah. Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd declined to offer any specifics on Tuesday, offering coy responses about Doncic’s ability to practice and the possibility that he’ll play on Saturday, tweets Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News.
For what it’s worth, Kidd said multiple times that Doncic is “in great spirits,” while Mavericks guard Spencer Dinwiddie offered a positive assessment of his teammate’s status (Twitter link via Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News): “He seemed solid to me. I mean, he don’t seem like a guy that’s going to miss too much time, if any.”
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- The Cavaliers have officially listed Jarrett Allen (finger) as out for Tuesday’s play-in game vs. Brooklyn. An earlier report suggested there’s some hope that Allen would be able to play on Friday if Cleveland loses tonight.
- Clippers sharpshooter Luke Kennard (hamstring) had been officially listed as questionable for Tuesday’s play-in game, but he didn’t make the trip to Minnesota, according to head coach Tyronn Lue (Twitter link via Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times).
- Hawks big man John Collins, out since March 11 due to finger and foot injuries, played some 4-on-4 over the weekend, but head coach Nate McMillan isn’t sure whether he’ll be available for Wednesday’s play-in game vs. Charlotte, writes Sarah K. Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He’s been moving a lot more, and today was pretty much shooting. … We’ll see tomorrow,” McMillan said on Tuesday. “We’ll see how he feels after the weekend of play and what he went through today.”
- After missing the last two games of the regular season with a knee issue, Sixers forward Georges Niang was able to practice on Tuesday and should be ready for Game 1 on Saturday, head coach Doc Rivers told reporters, including Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).
Luka Doncic Suffers Calf Strain In Mavs’ Regular Season Finale
APRIL 11: An MRI confirmed Doncic’s calf strain, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets. The Mavs have not set a timetable for his return and won’t be obligated to provide an update on Doncic’s status for Game 1 until later in the week.
APRIL 10: Star guard Luka Doncic left the Mavericks‘ regular season finale vs. San Antonio on Sunday in the third quarter due to what the team is calling a left calf strain (Twitter link). Doncic limped to the locker room after sustaining the injury and was quickly ruled out for the rest of the game.
It’s certainly not great timing for Doncic and the Mavericks, who have earned the No. 4 seed in the West and are looking to make a deep playoff run this spring.
As Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes observes (via Twitter), calf strains can result in a wide range of recovery timelines depending on the severity and the location. On average, a player who sustained the injury this season was out for 16 days, per Stotts, but some players returned much quicker than that.
One factor working in Doncic’s favor is that Dallas’ first-round series won’t tip off until Saturday, so he’ll have the better part of a week to try to get healthy. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), there’s initial optimism that the All-NBA guard hasn’t suffered a significant injury.
It looked earlier this weekend as if Doncic wouldn’t even be active for the Mavs’ regular season finale, since he was assessed with his 16th technical foul on Friday night, which would have triggered an automatic one-game suspension. However, the NBA rescinded that technical on Saturday, allowing Doncic to suit up on Sunday.
If Doncic has to miss any playoff games, the Mavs would lean more heavily on point guards Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie for scoring and play-making.
Joel Embiid, Luka Doncic Named Players Of The Week
Sixers center Joel Embiid has been named the Eastern Conference’s Player of the Week for the final week of the 2021/22 regular season (April 4-10), while Mavericks guard Luka Doncic has won the award in the West, the NBA announced today (via Twitter).
Embiid, putting a stamp on an MVP-caliber season, averaged 38.7 PPG, 14.3 RPG, and 2.7 APG on .609/.444/.757 shooting in three games (37.7 MPG) before resting in Philadelphia’s regular season finale on Sunday. The Sixers had a 3-1 week as Embiid earned his second Player of the Week award of the season.
Doncic, meanwhile, put up 30.3 PPG, 10.0 APG, and 9.0 RPG as the Mavs won their final three games of the season by an average margin of 26 points. It was his third Player of the Week award this season. Doncic’s season ended on a sour note though, as he left Sunday’s finale early due to a strained left calf. He’ll undergo an MRI today to determine the severity of the injury.
Embiid beat out fellow nominees Pascal Siakam, Kevin Durant, and Obi Toppin in the East. The other Western nominees were Rudy Gobert and Klay Thompson (Twitter link).
Injury Notes: Allen, Doncic, Murray, LeBron, Barrett
Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen, who has been sidelined since March 6 due to a fractured finger, has shed his splint and has his injured finger wrapped with black tape, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. However, sources tell Fedor there’s still pessimism about Allen’s potential availability for Cleveland’s play-in game vs. Brooklyn on Tuesday.
One of Fedor’s sources said it’s “unrealistic” to expect Allen to play on Tuesday, while another said that Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff is preparing to be without his All-Star center.
“I can’t give you an exact timeline,” Bickerstaff said before Sunday’s regular season finale. “He’s doing more and more with that hand. It’s just a matter of time.
“It’s a structure thing first and foremost. You always want to make sure that it’s as healthy as it possibly can be. In his position, the banging that he does, on the rim, like blocking shots, all those things. Then it becomes pain tolerance. Then strengthening and his ability to use that finger. But he’s making steps. It’ll be one of those things where the day will come and he’ll be ready to go.”
If the Cavaliers can’t get by the Nets on Tuesday, they would face either Atlanta or Charlotte on Friday, with the No. 8 spot up for grabs. One source who believes Allen will miss Tuesday’s game thinks it’s “50-50” that he’d return on Friday, according to Fedor.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Mavericks star Luka Doncic will undergo an MRI on his strained left calf on Monday to determine the severity of the injury and a potential recovery timeline, tweets veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein.
- Appearing on 104.3 The Fan in Denver, Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said it’s “100%” up to Jamal Murray if he returns from his ACL injury this season. “We want him to feel no pressure, want him to know that the organization has his best interests in mind,” Connelly said (Twitter link via Mike Singer of The Denver Post). “… He’s done a great job in rehab, he looks really, really good.”
- Lakers forward LeBron James underwent an MRI on his left ankle in Los Angeles this weekend and didn’t make the trip to Denver for the team’s regular season finale, Frank Vogel told reporters on Sunday (Twitter link via Dave McMenamin of ESPN). Presumably, the Lakers will be able to share more information on the results of that MRI at today’s exit interviews with the media.
- Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau confirmed that RJ Barrett avoided a worst-case scenario when he injured his right knee earlier this week and has been diagnosed with just a sprain. The team anticipates Barrett will be back to 100% for offseason workouts in about a month, says Marc Berman of The New York Post.
Southwest Notes: Morant, Williamson, Pelicans, LeBron
Ja Morant got the pre-playoff tuneup he wanted tonight, playing 27 minutes as the Grizzlies raced past the Pelicans, writes Drew Hill of The Daily Memphian. After missing more than three weeks with soreness in his right knee, the dynamic guard showed little sign of rust as he put up 21 points, nine assists and four rebounds with a few highlight plays mixed in.
“It’s something I’ve been waiting on since March 18,” Morant said. “… I had a lot of fun. I’m just preparing for this stretch we are about to go on in the playoffs. I feel like I needed a game or two to get my legs back under and get a game feel.”
Morant didn’t shy away from contact, Hill adds, as he repeatedly drove into the heart of the New Orleans defense. That’s something coach Taylor Jenkins wanted to see after Morant spent so much time away from NBA conditions.
“There’s nothing comparable (to game action),” Jenkins said. “You can’t fill out. It’s hard to get 10 NBA bodies out there to simulate games for him (in practice). The physicality, the speed, it’s a great tuneup. It’s your natural ramp up, one-on-zero, one-on-one, three-on-three, five-on-five, but nothing replaces NBA games.”
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Zion Williamson was able to take part in what Pelicans coach Willie Green called a “controlled scrimmage” on Thursday, but his prospects of returning remain uncertain, per Andrew Lopez of ESPN. After ending the regular season Sunday night, New Orleans will be in Wednesday’s 9-10 play-in game and will need to defeat the Spurs to avoid elimination, so the time for Williamson to come back is running short. “The beauty of it is that it’s good to see him on the floor,” Green said. “I think he’s feeling more normal, the fact that he gets to play basketball. That’s what he wants to do. That’s what he loves to do. We just want him to get as healthy as he can and continue to progress in that way.”
- The Lakers‘ late-season slide has increased the chances that the Pelicans will receive their first-round pick, tweets Christian Clark of NOLA.com. There’s now a 99.6% chance that the selection will fall in the top 10 and be conveyed to New Orleans. The pick would go to the Grizzlies if it lands outside the top 10.
- The chances of LeBron James leaving the Lakers to team up with Luka Doncic on the Mavericks down the road should be considered remote but not impossible, contends Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News.
Luka Doncic’s 16th Technical Foul Rescinded
APRIL 9: The NBA has rescinded Doncic’s 16th technical, and he will be eligible to play Sunday, tweets Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.
APRIL 8: Mavericks star Luka Doncic received his 16th technical foul on Friday night against the Blazers and faces an automatic one-game suspension for the team’s season finale, according to Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News.
There’s a chance that the NBA could rescind the technical, which would allow Doncic to play in the finale, a home game against San Antonio on Sunday. Doncic successfully challenged one other technical this season and had it rescinded after a league review.
As ESPN’s Tim MacMahon relays, Doncic was upset about a non-foul call at the end of the first quarter after he was undercut from behind on a half-court shot attempt. He tried to make his case to the referee closest to him, and when that was ignored, he went to crew chief Tony Brothers and asked about the play, only to be T’d up.
“I asked him, ‘How is that not a foul? How is that not a foul?'” Doncic said, offering an explanation to Mavs VP of basketball communications Scott Tomlin. “He T’d me up. That’s unfair. That’s unfair.”
The impending suspension is significant because it could have a major impact on the Western Conference playoff seedings. Dallas is only one game behind Golden State for the No. 3 seed, but holds the tiebreaker — if the Mavs win their last two games and the Warriors lose at least one, the Mavs would jump up to No. 3. The Warriors have back-to-back road games against San Antonio and New Orleans this weekend to finish their season.
Doncic’s technical fouls will be reset when the playoffs start, so his pending suspension will only impact the seedings, not his availability for the postseason. If the technical holds up and he’s suspended, he’ll lose his game check worth $70,168, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).
Pacers Rumors: Carlisle, Brunson, Brogdon, Westbrook, Hield, Turner
Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle appears committed to his role for the future, Marc Stein writes at Substack. As we recently relayed, Carlisle denied that he’s interested in switching to a front office role, addressing the rumors in a brief statement.
“I just want to be completely clear on this. I don’t know what the assumptions are that people are making about this, why this would be the case,” Carlisle said, according to Stein. “When I came here, we had hoped to have a really good season this year. We had some struggles early, and it morphed into a change in direction, but that’s OK. It has not quelled my enthusiasm for being back with the Indiana Pacers or taking on this challenge one single bit.”
The Pacers are viewed as a team that may pursue Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson in free agency this summer, Stein reports. Brunson played under Carlisle for three years in Dallas. Signing the 25-year-old could motivate Carlisle further, though Detroit and New York are also expected to bid for his services.
There’s more out of Indiana today:
- The Pacers have left several rival teams with the impression that they’ll attempt to trade Malcolm Brogdon this offseason, Stein relays. Trading Brogdon would open a spot for Brunson, who could pair with Tyrese Haliburton in the backcourt.
- If the team doesn’t sign Brunson, it could also examine a possible Russell Westbrook trade with the Lakers, Stein notes. A deal for Westbrook would likely include Buddy Hield, whom the Lakers coveted before trading for Westbrook last offseason. It could also include Brogdon and draft compensation from the Lakers. Indiana acquired Hield in a deal with Sacramento earlier this season.
- One player the Pacers do want to keep is Myles Turner, according to Stein. Turner saw his name surface in trade rumors this season. He averaged 12.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in 29.4 minutes per game, shooting 51% from the floor. He’s under contract for next season at $18MM.