Dallas Mavericks Star Luka Doncic OUT For Marquee Matchup vs OKC Thunder

The Dallas Mavericks will be without Luka Doncic against the Oklahoma City Thunder, taking some of the sting out of a Nationally Televised game.

On Thursday, the Oklahoma City Thunder (45-20) welcome in the Dallas Mavericks (38-28) to the Paycom Center to wrap up a four-game home stand on National Television. 

The Dallas Mavericks are on the second night of a back-to-back while knocking off the Golden State Warriors last night, the Mavericks lost their superstar Luka Doncic to an injury.

It was unclear last night if Doncic would even fly to Oklahoma City with the team before the Mavericks announced this afternoon their starting guard would miss this contest in Bricktown with a sore Hamstring. 

Dallas does not play again until Sunday against the Denver Nuggets giving Doncic a full three days off before his next possible appearance. Though, this does deliver a blow to one of the NBA's marquee games of the night. 

With this game not set to tip-off until 9 P.M. CT it was slated to feature two of the League's MVP frontrunners in Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Instead, the Mavs will be without their superstar and forced to rely on Kyrie Irving and company. 

Dallas, who has dealt with injuries all year, was finally healthy entering this contest and will again have to play shorthanded. 

For Oklahoma City, they are set to have Jalen Williams return to the fold on Thursday making them fully healthy for this matchup against a possible playoff opponent. 

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