Dallas Mavs Injury Notes: Luka Doncic Status Before San Antonio Spurs Matchup
DALLAS — The status of Luka Doncic for the Dallas Mavericks' Oct. 25 regular-season opener against the San Antonio Spurs still faces far more questions than answers with just four days remaining. He continues to recover from what has been labeled a mild left calf strain.
Before the Mavs' 114-104 preseason win over the Pistons on Friday, coach Jason Kidd revealed no current timetable for Doncic's return. The messaging featured the need for the weekend to play out before the team would know more.
“[We] don’t have a timetable yet,” Kidd said. “He’s still being evaluated, and we’ll see how he feels in the next week.”
The messaging remained unchanged after Kidd spoke to reporters following Saturday's practice. Doncic continues to progress in doing on-court work in his recovery efforts but has been unable to participate in practice fully.
"He continues to do on-court work and is progressing," Kidd said. "My hope is that he resumes practicing next week, but we'll see where we are after the weekend."
Dallas Mavs superstar Luka Doncic warming up before a game.
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Doncic injured his calf during the Mavs' Oct. 9 practice at Real Madrid City, the day before their exhibition loss against Real Madrid at WiZink Center. He played for under five minutes and described it as "nothing serious" to reporters. He underwent an MRI after the team returned from the 12-day international preseason excursion.
"It was my calf yesterday in practice, nothing serious," Doncic said in Madrid. "They just don't want to make it worse, you know? I tried to go and talk to the front office people, but you know me, I wish I played 40 minutes but couldn't."
With Kyrie Irving and Josh Green playing in the Mavs' 114-104 preseason win over the Pistons, the team's other injury focus remains on Jaden Hardy. The second-year guard injured his ankle on Thursday, and similar to Doncic, the team has hope that he will practice next week but doesn't have more information at this time.
The Mavs remain focused on playing at a faster pace. It has been an emphasis in practices over the past week and was displayed against the Pistons. With Doncic sidelined, the team deployed units that featured a lot of athleticism and defensive versatility while embracing getting the ball up the floor quickly, often flowing into early actions like dribble handoffs.
“When you look at the way we have been talking about pace … We haven’t been seen by the public for a while, so I thought for the public to see that we can play fast and to have 40 points in that first quarter and then also come back in the third and almost have that same mentality. It was good to see that starting group play."
The earliest new information will be provided about the injury status of Doncic and Hardy will be on Monday since the team has Sunday off.
