NBA
Luka Doncic expected to be back before All-Star weekend
The Dallas basketball player should be back on the court before the mid-season exhibition game, which will be played in San Francisco, CA next month.
Luka Dončić, the Dallas Mavericks Luka Dončić, the Dallas Mavericks basketball player, is expected to return to the court within the next month just before the All-Star weekend scheduled from February 14 to 16 at the Chase Center in San Francisco, home of the Golden State Warriors.
The Slovenia international, who injured his calf during the match against the Minnesota Timberwolves on December 25, has already missed 18 games this season and is not among the candidates for individual awards at the end of the season, with the newly incited rule by the National Basketball Association. The first prediction from the Mavs medical team was one month of recovery, which coincides with the time Aaron Gordon from the Denver Nuggets needed for a similar calf strain injury.
The one-month recovery period ends just before the mid-season break at the beginning of February. Counting those two weeks out of play will allow Luka and the Mavs to better prepare for the second half of the season.
In his 22 appearances for the Dallas team this season, Doncic totaled 28.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 2.0 steals, and 0.4 steals per contest.
Kidd downplays the individual awards
The new rule states that a player must play at least 65 of the 82 regular season games to be eligible for the award. However, Coach Kidd believes individual accolades are not important at the moment, but the health of his team’s best players is the real priority.
“When you have a severe injury, it can knock you out of that, but we know that he’s one of the best players. He’s always mentioned as an MVP candidate. Our thinking is hopefully he gets healthy sooner than later, and we can get him back on the floor,” Kidd stated in his press conference after last night’s loss (99-118) against the Denver Nuggets.
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