Mavs Injury Update: Dereck Lively II Helped to Locker Room with Ankle Injury vs. Blazers
The good news for the Dallas Mavericks, who began a seven-game homestand on Wednesday night, is that Kyrie Irving knocked off some rust in his second game back from missing 12 games to a heel contusion. With 2:36 left in the third quarter, Irving had 29 points as the Mavs led the Blazers by 29 points.
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The bad news, though, is that just when the Mavs thought things were looking up on the injury front, rookie starting big man Dereck Lively II went down with a nasty-looking ankle sprain in the third quarter. In 19 minutes, Lively had zero points and four rebounds while being a +23 on the night.
The Mavs are officially calling Lively's injury as a sprain and nothing more, but he will not return to tonight's game. In 28 games coming into Wednesday's game, Lively was averaging 9.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.4 blocks while shooting 72.8 percent from the field.
Although Luka Doncic and his co-star Irving are healthy and back playing at an elite level together, Lively missing significant time would be a big blow, as the Mavs are just 1-5 in games where the 19-year-old anchor doesn't suit up.
Stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com for extensive postgame coverage following tonight's game against the Blazers and updates on Lively's status in the coming days.
