The Dallas Mavericks lose Luka Doncic to injury on final night of the season

The Dallas Mavericks are heading to the playoffs, but they paid a heavy price for their efforts on Sunday night, as they saw their star player exit the game with an injury

Luka Doncic leaves Spurs game with injury

As they came into Sunday’s game the Dallas Mavericks were in with a chance to clinch the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. What did they need? A win against the San Antonio Spurs and a loss by the Golden State Warriors against the New Orleans Pelicans. For their part, they kept their end of the bargain, but in the end the Warriors won and even worse was the cost of their own victory, which was way higher than they would have surely liked to pay.

It was a moment that seemed in no way out of the ordinary. The Mavericks were heading towards victory with an 18 point lead over the Spurs, when star point guard Luka Doncic drove to the basket and en route had a clash of knees with the Spurs’ Zach Collins. Immediately Doncic could be seen indicating that he wanted a time out as he could be seen in visible pain. The Slovenian then left the court after which he was ruled out by the Mavericks with what they called a ‘calf strain’ and he did not return.

Will Doncic recover for the playoffs?

At the moment The Mavericks are reportedly optimistic that Doncic has not suffered a major injury and as such will indeed be available for the playoffs. Remember, with the Mavericks not having to take part in the play-in round, Doncic will have almost a week to rest his leg as he attempts to recover. The Mavericks of course being the No. 4 seed due to Golden State’s victory, are now set to face the No. 5 Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs which will likely get off and running on Saturday.

Interestingly, Doncic was was actually not meant to play in Sunday night’s game. Having picked up his 16th technical foul in the previous game, an automatic suspension for the season finale was triggered. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, the technical foul was later rescinded and Doncic was allowed to play. At this point, however, one would have to think that Doncic and the Mavericks would take a ‘do-over.’

What do the Mavericks do now?

Though there is no official word, it would seem that Doncic will likely return in time for the start of the Mavericks’ post season run. It goes without saying that they certainly need him back as any success they have had over the last few seasons was almost exclusively tied to Doncic’s form. That being said, if Dallas is to make a deep run into the playoffs, it will take more than just the skills of their star player, indeed, Doncic’s teammates will have to step up to the plate if they hope to make good on the impressive regular season that they just had.