Dallas Mavs 'No Update' on Kyrie Irving Injury Return Before Matchup vs. LeBron James' Los Angeles Lakers

Not only are the Dallas Mavericks having to take on the Los Angeles Lakers on a second night of a back-to-back, but they'll be doing so extremely shorthanded, as it appears that Kyrie Irving will miss his second consecutive game.

Dalton Trigg | Dec 12, 2023

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The Dallas Mavericks were severely shorthanded on Monday night when they took on the Memphis Grizzlies, as Kyrie Irving (foot), Tim Hardaway Jr. (back), Josh Green (elbow), Grant Williams (knee) and Maxi Kleber (toe) were all out. And just when you thought that was bad enough, Derrick Jones Jr. got hurt in the first quarter and had to leave the game.

Despite all of that, though, superstar Luka Doncic and rookie center Dereck Lively II led the Mavs to a 120-113 win in Memphis, pushing their record to 14-8, good for sole possession of third place in the Western Conference for the time being.

Now, the Mavs will take on LeBron James and the inaugural In-Season Tournament champion Los Angeles Lakers on a second night of a back-to-back after flying back to Dallas from Memphis. One of the big questions: Will Irving make his return after just a one-game absence?

“No update,” Mavs head coach said before the win over the Grizzlies on Monday.

Luka Doncic Leads Injury-Depleted Mavs to Road Win vs. Grizzlies

That doesn’t mean things could change today as we get closer to tip-off between the Mavs and Lakers, but it’s probably not likely. Irving, who was already experiencing some foot issues earlier this season, had to leave Friday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers in the second quarter after Dwight Powell fell on him. The Mavs avoided disaster, though, as he was diagnosed with a heel contusion.

The average time missed for that type of injury is around two games, but given Irving’s age and recent foot injury history from this calendar year, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Irving miss a handful of games leading up to Christmas.

Can Doncic, Lively and company continue their win streak against a tough Lakers squad while being shorthanded and having heavy legs on a back-to-back? Either way, we should be in for a fun one at AAC tonight.

Published Dec 12, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.