Kyrie Irving Announces Return to Mavs Lineup vs. Sixers, Details Injury Recovery
PHILADELPHIA — Dallas Mavericks superstar Kyrie Irving suffered a right thumb sprain against the Boston Celtics during the team's 119-110 loss and has been sidelined since. He's averaged 25.2 points, 5.3 assists, and 5.1 rebounds in 27 appearances and is set to return to the lineup to continue his season.
Irving admitted it's frustrating to go through another injury that caused him to miss multiple games, with his first being a 12-game injury absence resulting from a teammate landing on his leg. He appreciates having the support of his teammates and the coaching staff as he manages the injury and announced that he will play on Monday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
"I'm frustrated but doing my best to get through," Irving said. "I've had a lot of support from my teammates and the coaching staff. Just the hardest thing is being injured in this league. Games come by every single day and it doesn't get easier as you get older. I'm grateful I can be active tonight and give it a go."
Irving does not plan on having a restriction on his minutes in his return to the Mavs' lineup. He hopes that Mavs coach Jason Kidd will not have him under one.
"No, I don't plan on that. Hopefully, J-Kidd doesn't put me on a minutes restriction, but, no, I don't plan on that," Irving said.
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While risk always remains of a defender swiping down on his injured hand when attacking the basket or throughout a general basketball sequence, Irving understands the risk involved. Instead of rushing back too soon, he weighed the big picture for a team with major postseason aspirations despite the frustration of sitting out.
"It's professional sports, and basketball is an art form, but it's also physical combat," Irving said. "A lot of grabbing, a lot of holding, a lot of high-intensity games and possessions. You want to be as as healthy as as you can be. It's the regular season. So you want to be smart and think about the big picture."
"But for me, again, the frustration, I try not to be too ahead of myself and just wait until my body's in a good place and just try to put myself in a greater position than I was before I got injured and just work my way back, man," Irving explained. "Getting injured is just, like, taking three steps back, and you have to work five steps to get forward or work to get five steps. That's been the focus now. It's just getting as healthy as possible, giving it a go, and testing it out tonight."
Irving emphasized how his major love for the game makes it "one of the hardest things" not to be able to play.
"To be honest with you, it's one of the hardest things to sit on the sidelines," Irving said. "As a person who loves the game as much as I do, it gets tougher to sit more games. I want to be out there. That's just where I stand with all of this, man."
When preparing to return to competition, Irving acknowledged the need to solve for how defenders will play him. However, the clear random nature of sports cannot result in overthinking, considering he did not expect the sequence involving Jayson Tatum would result in him missing multiple games with a sprained thumb. At first, he could not catch the ball for three or four days, complicating his ability to compete, but currently, it's about pain tolerance as he returns.
"[How defenders swipe down] is one of the concerns, but I had to mentally prepare for that, and that's what these past few games or past few days have been like," Irving said. "It's just mentally preparing for when it's going to get hit, how it's going to get hit, how I'm going to catch passes. I didn't imagine that the swipe down on that first possession against [Jayson Tatum] would linger on to a sprained thumb, and then I wouldn't be able to catch with my right hand in the first three, four days.
"So just working through the pain and working on my tolerance, that's really what it takes as an athlete in this stance," Irving explained. "When you're injured, or you have a knick-knack injury, it's on your shooting hand, or it's in a type of place in your body where you don't really have control on how people are going to pass you the ball, or when the defender's going to swipe down. You just have to make adjustments I'll be a warrior out there, really. That's what it takes, man. Just mentally preparing for what's going to come."
The Mavs enter Monday's game with a 26-23 record, having lost six of their previous eight games, including a 129-117 loss against the Milwaukee Bucks despite holding a 25-point early in the second quarter. Irving emphasized it's encouraging the team has been in games despite injuries, but the team has to take pressure off of Luka Doncic.
"We are in a lot of games possession-wise, but I think we just need to continue to find that continuity down the stretch and not put so much pressure on Luka to bail us out every single time and allow other guys to play their roles at a high level," Irving said. "And I think we've been doing a great job of it. We just have to continue to find the consistency, as I've been saying since the beginning of the season."
"A lot of teams don't take it easy on us as they shouldn't, but we just have to be able to rise to the occasion and opportunity to play the game 48 minutes straight, complete game,' Irving explained. "I feel like we played 30 minutes, 35 minutes, got a little frustrated, had a few leads in games, and then we let go. This is not just why I'm not playing but also why I'm playing. So we're just getting smarter as a team in development that continuity."
Given that Irving's right hand is important to his game, he emphasized how many nuances go into his performance that needed to be accounted for when playing with a thumb injury. He's currently encouraged by how he feels and is excited to get out on the floor to test it against the Sixers.
"It wasn't like I injured my lower body," Irving said. "It was just getting myself more acclimated on how I'm going to be able to catch the ball and make these calibrated thoughts and rhythm moves. My game is based on so many nuances that people don't see. So just get out there and see what it feels like tonight."
While the February 8 trade deadline continues to approach, Irving expressed how the Mavs already have an identity as a team. Still, it's been challenging to build on it, given the recent slew of injuries. With the Mavs being in the second half of their schedule, it's important to gain further continuity as a group, and he remains confident in what they can achieve together when healthy.
"You see the standings. You see where teams are positioning themselves before the trade deadline, and we'll get a better look at how teams position themselves after the trade deadline," Irving said. "But we're pretty much done the first half of the season. We're in our second half. We pretty much know who we are as a team identity-wise, and we're still developing it into a team that trusts each other throughout situations where some guys are down or banged up.
"A lot of this has just been a test for how we handle things when guys are in and out of the lineup," Irving explained. We don't want it to be like this in the second half of the season or towards the playoffs. So God willing, prayers up that we stay healthy. We've had some unfortunate freakin' accidents, but nobody feels bad for us. Fans are always going to be talking. The media is always going to be talking because we are one of those teams to be reckoned with when we're fully healthy."
With key players like Dereck Lively II and Dante Exum still sidelined, Irving looks forward to regaining them back into the fold and building as much as they can entering the All-Star break. The next step will be to achieve consistency when they are whole again as a group, but the potential remains encouraging.
"We've we've shown them the capability. We've shown that we have the ability to play with the best and beat the best. Now we just have to get healthy and find that consistency throughout this process, man."
