Luka Doncic injury update: Mavericks star questionable for season opener vs. Spurs with calf strain

Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic is questionable for the workforce’s season opener towards Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday because of a left calf strain. A last determination about Doncic’s availability will arrive a while previous to the sport on Wednesday. 

“[The calf is] better,” Doncic said whilst chatting with journalists on Tuesday. “We don’t know yet, honestly, [if I’ll be able to play]. I’ve been practicing for two days now, so I feel pretty good, but we’ll see how it feels tomorrow morning. I did everything [in practice]. I felt great yesterday, but we’ll see. Two days of practice is different than two weeks of just lifting and shooting.”

Doncic injured his calf previous this month right through a tradition whilst the Mavericks had been in Spain. They spent a lot of the preseason in a foreign country, enjoying a sequence of video games in Abu Dhabi and Madrid, together with one towards Doncic’s former membership, Real Madrid. Doncic used to be restricted to only 5 mins of motion in that contest, on the other hand, because of his calf injury. He underwent an MRI upon returning to the States and didn’t play within the workforce’s preseason finale on Oct. 20. 

This isn’t the primary time that Doncic has injured this calf. He prior to now strained it on the finish of the 2021-22 common season and neglected just about two weeks, together with the primary 3 video games of the Mavericks’ first-round playoff sequence towards the Utah Jazz. 

Whether Doncic finally ends up having the ability to move or no longer on Wednesday, all indicators are pointing to a go back faster reasonably than later, which is superb news for the Mavericks. They are coming off a particularly disappointing season through which they completed 38-44 and didn’t even make the play-in match. 

Getting again to the playoffs may not be simple in a deep Western Conference that has a dozen groups with postseason desires. A couple of video games might be the variation between a top-six spot and a play-in berth, in addition to a play-in berth and a lottery travel. As such, the Mavericks can’t manage to pay for many video games with out their star.