Mavericks guard Luka Doncic banged his left thumb on James Harden‘s knee early in Saturday’s loss to the Clippers (video link) and underwent X-rays at halftime, according to reports from Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN and Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News.
Doncic ultimately remained in the game and logged 38 minutes, indicating in his postgame media session that the X-rays were negative. However, he’ll undergo further evaluation on Sunday when the team returns home.
“I don’t think it’s broken,” Doncic said. “The X-rays didn’t indicate that it’s broken, but we’ll see further tomorrow in Dallas.”
The fact that Doncic continued playing for an entire game after injuring his thumb and performed reasonably well by his standards (30 points on 12-of-27 shooting) is a positive sign. And for what it’s worth, a source tells Youngmisuk that Doncic’s hand is “good.”
Still, even if Sunday’s tests show no significant damage to his thumb or hand, the Dallas star will likely have to deal with some pain for a while, which could impact his effectiveness.
After a hot start that saw them win eight of their first 10 games, the Mavs have been up and down as of late, losing four of their last six.