Mavs List Porzingis as OUT For Tonight's Visit From Blazers
DALLAS - The troubles, and the teases, of Kristaps Porzingis, continue.
The Dallas Mavericks have downgraded Porzingis from "questionable'' to "out'' for tonight's visit from the Portland Trail Blazers this evening here at the AAC, marking the 10th straight game the 7-3 big man will miss due to what the team has called "right knee soreness.''
"It's a big loss when a guy like that is out,'' Mavs coach Rick Carlisle recently said of Porzingis. "Our guys have done a good job of playing without him, but he's a difference-maker. And when you don't have a guy like that, you're going to feel the difference."
Dallas is in sixth place in the West with a 26-15 record and has won three straight games. Portland has struggled to a record of 18-24 and is in 10th place in the West but has won two straight. (More on the Blazers, featuring Carmelo Anthony, here.) Dallas, if it wishes to correct its biggest flaw from the first half of the season, would like to start notching victories at home as the Mavs sport a weirdly mediocre 12-10 record at home.
Mavs sensation Luka Doncic, 20, is coming off Wednesday's 127-123 win at Sacramento, a game in which he produced 25 points, 15 rebounds and a career-best 17 assists.
"These numbers are just crazy," Carlisle said. "It's hard to fathom.''
For Mavs watchers, it's also hard to fathom, frankly, what it is exactly that ails Porzingis. Yes, we know it's "soreness'' in his right knee and yes, we trust trainer Casey Smith to oversee it, but ... it's almost as frustrating for us to watch KP's nightly on-again/off-again status as it is for KP himself.
