Luka Doncic Ankle Injury Update: Is 'Good Spirits' Enough for Mavs?

“He looked good. He looked fine,” coach Jason Kidd said after the game, adding that the MVP candidate Luka Doncic is "in good spirits'' despite a nasty ankle injury.

The good news to come out of the late night in Phoenix? The Dallas Mavs took on the Suns in a rematch of their Western Conference Semis series from a season ago and found a way to gut out a 99-95 victory.

The bad news? Luka Doncic left the game early, did not return, and required X-rays to check on the severity of an ankle injury that clearly had him in pain.

“He looked good. He looked fine,” coach Jason Kidd said after the game, adding that the MVP candidate is "in good spirits.''

Here is Luka Doncic favoring that left ankle as he limped his way to the locker room:pic.twitter.com/2LqUKeeccB

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) January 27, 2023

Luckily for the Mavericks, the X-rays done during the game came back negative, and the injury is being labeled a "left ankle sprain.''

"Good spirits''? That's nice. But the Mavs - at 26-24 and in sixth place in the West largely due to the individual brilliance of Doncic - don't just need Luka's "spirits'' to be OK. They need his ankle to be OK. On this night, it was Spencer Dinwiddie who picked up the scoring slack with 36 points to key the victory.

But replacing Luka is ... well, impossible.

Good thing, then, that Woj on Friday morning is reporting that while Luka is “day-to-day,” his injury is being described as a “mild” ankle sprain.

Doncic is in the midst of another remarkable season as he has averages of 33.8 points, 9.1 rebounds, 8.6 assists and 1.5 steals per contest in 44 games. 

“But we’ll see as we go forward here,'' Kidd said about the Luka prognosis. :We’ll have probably more information once we get to Utah.”

The Mavericks will play their next game on Saturday on the road in Salt Lake City.