FINAL UPDATE: Luka Doncic's Injury Status For Mavs-Spurs Game
FINAL UPDATE: Luka Doncic is available, according to Marc Stein of The SteinLine.
UPDATE: Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News reports that Luka Doncic participated in shootaround.
On Wednesday evening, the Dallas Mavericks will play their first game of the 2023-24 regular season when they visit the San Antonio Spurs.
For the game, they could be without their best player, as All-Star Luka Doncic is listed as questionable due to a calf injury.
Via Underdog NBA: "Luka Doncic (calf) listed questionable for Wednesday."
Doncic is coming off another sensational season where he averaged 32.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 1.4 steals per contest while shooting 49.6% from the field and 34.2% from the three-point range in 66 games.
He was initially the third pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and has been in the league for five seasons (all with the Mavs).
His career averages are 27.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 1.1 steals per contest while shooting 46.6% from the field and 33.8% from the three-point range in 330 regular season games (he has also appeared in 28 NBA playoff games).
On Tuesday, ESPN's Tim MacMahon added more details on Doncic's playing status.
Via McMahon on Tuesday: "Luka Doncic says he isn’t dealing with any soreness in his calf but isn’t quite ready to commit to playing in opener vs. Spurs. “We’ll see how it feels tomorrow,” he said. Officially listed as questionable."
The Mavs made the Western Conference Finals in 2022 but missed the NBA playoffs (and the play-in tournament) in 2023.
Meanwhile, the Spurs are coming off a season where they were the 15th seed in the west and missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season.