Luka Doncic OUT For Mavs at Cavs
The Dallas Mavericks will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers during the second night of a back-to-back. After defeating the Portland Trail Blazers 130-110 on Friday, the Mavs are one game above .500 at 15-14. However, that very well could change after Saturday's game.
It will be the final of two regular season matchups between the Cavs and the Mavs. It's also the second time the two teams will face off in the span of less than a week. Cleveland defeated Dallas 105-90 on Wednesday as Donovan Mitchell scored 27 of his 34 points in the opening half.
As announced by the Mavs, they will not have Spencer Dinwiddie (right knee, injury recovery), Luka Doncic (right quad strain), Josh Green (right elbow sprain), Maxi Kleber (right hamstring tear), and Dwight Powell (left thigh contusion) against the Cavs.
Kleber remains sidelined as he recovers from a long-term leg injury, while Green has more of a day-to-day injury. Both players were unavailable to play on Friday against the Trail Blazers. Powell suffered a thigh injury in the game after getting hit by Jerami Grant's knee.
There have been two prior occurrences of the Mavs sitting Doncic and other key players on the second night of a back-to-back. They lost both of those games, including a 101-92 loss to the Houston Rockets at home.
It was brought up before the season that Dinwiddie will be able to play back-to-backs. After not missing a game this season, he will be sidelined for the first time for what is considered as being right knee injury recovery.
Among the few key players that aren't sitting out Saturday's game includes Christian Wood and Kemba Walker. Both players will surely be relied upon heavily to shoulder the load offensively. It was mentioned after Friday's win that Walker "will play a lot" against the Cavs.
"He's doing great. He's going to play a lot tomorrow," Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. "I thought the minutes — telling him tonight he was going to be in the rotation, so he was in the matrix, so he knew when he was going in. I thought he was really good tonight."
The Cavs hold a 13-2 home record, which is tied with the Memphis Grizzlies and Milwaukee Bucks as being the best in the NBA. Cleveland has a 116.0 offensive rating, a 105.8 defensive rating, and a 10.2 net rating when playing at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
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