Dallas Mavericks Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Mavs’ Porzingis Has Meniscus Tear, Ruled Out For Series

August 28th, 2020 at 4:56pm CST by Luke Adams

4:56pm: Porzingis has been diagnosed with a lateral meniscus tear of his right knee and has been ruled out for the remainder of the Mavs’ first-round series, the team announced today (via Twitter).

The Mavs and Porzingis are evaluating further treatment options. According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link), surgery is one possibility to address the injury, which Porzingis suffered in Game 1.

4:07pm: Game 6 between the Mavericks and Clippers has been pushed back by three days and will now take place on Sunday instead of Thursday. However, Dallas big man Kristaps Porzingis didn’t practice on Friday and remains “very doubtful” to play due to his right knee injury, head coach Rick Carlisle said today (Twitter link via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon of ESPN).

With the Mavs facing a 3-2 deficit, it’s possible that Sunday’s game will be their last of the season, which means we may not see Porzingis again until the start of the 2020/21 campaign. He has been sidelined since Game 3 of the team’s first-round series.

The Mavs haven’t offered any specific diagnosis on Porzingis’ injured right knee, having listed him as out with “soreness” for the last two games. He underwent an MRI on this week and the Mavs didn’t say it showed any structural damage, though Carlisle didn’t offer many specifics on the results.

While Porzingis’ outlook for Sunday doesn’t look promising, it’s possible the delay helped a few other Mavs players get healthier. Luka Doncic (ankle), Dorian Finney-Smith (hips), and Trey Burke (ankle) had all been listed as questionable earlier this week when Game 6 was still scheduled for Thursday.

NBA Announces Updated Playoff Schedule

August 28th, 2020 at 3:47pm CST by Luke Adams

After postseason contests on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were postponed due to player protests, the NBA has announced its new playoff schedule for the weekend. That schedule is as follows:

Saturday, August 29

Bucks vs. Magic, Game 5 — 3:30pm ET
Rockets vs. Thunder, Game 5 — 6:30pm ET
Lakers vs. Trail Blazers, Game 5 — 9:00pm ET

Sunday, August 30

Raptors vs. Celtics, Game 1 (round two) — 1:00pm ET
Clippers vs. Mavericks, Game 6 — 3:30pm ET
Jazz vs. Nuggets, Game 6 — 8:30pm ET

While no games have been scheduled beyond Sunday, it’s probably safe to assume the NBA will resume its every-other-day format for each series. As such, the Rockets and Thunder would presumably play Game 6 on Monday. The Lakers/Trail Blazers and Bucks/Magic would do so as well if those series continue — L.A. and Milwaukee currently hold 3-1 leads.

For more details on the resumption of the season and the initiatives that the NBA and NBPA agreed upon as part of the restart, be sure to check out our earlier story.

NBA, NBPA Confirm Agreement To Resume Playoffs

August 28th, 2020 at 11:42am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association have issued a joint statement confirming that the postseason will resume on Saturday, August 29 and outlining the social justice and voting initiatives that have been agreed upon as part of the restart.

The full slate of games for Saturday and Sunday can be found right here.

As part of the agreement to resume the playoffs, the NBA and its players will immediately establish a “social justice coalition,” which will focus on issues such as “increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform.” Players, coaches, and team owners will all be part of that coalition.

Additionally, in each city where the NBA team owns its arena, owners will work with local officials to convert those buildings into voting locations for the 2020 election. A number of clubs have started doing this already, with the Rockets and Jazz among the latest to confirm their plans.

The Heat pushed for this initiative, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, who tweets that the club has been “trying for months” to get local officials to make AmericanAirlines Arena a voting center.

The NBA also plans to work with players and the league’s broadcast partners to create more advertisements that promote “greater civic engagement in national and local elections” and raise awareness about voter access — they’ll be aired during the remaining 2020 playoff games.

Following the players’ decision not to play Wednesday’s games as scheduled, they met multiple times on Wednesday and Thursday and ultimately decided they wanted to complete the season. They held a call with team owners on Thursday evening to discuss next steps and came away satisfied with how their concerns were addressed — presumably, the initiatives detailed above were all discussed during that call.

NBA Postseason Expected To Resume On Saturday

August 28th, 2020 at 6:41am CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 28, 6:41am: Reports from Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle and Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, among others, continue to point to Saturday as the day when the NBA’s postseason is on track to resume. We’re still waiting for official word from the league and the NBPA, but it appears increasingly unlikely that Friday’s games will be played as scheduled.

AUGUST 27, 1:28pm: NBA spokesperson Mike Bass has issued a statement confirming that Thursday’s games have been postponed and indicating that the league is hopeful to resume play either Friday or Saturday.

As reported by Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link) and confirmed by Bass, a meeting will take place today at 5:00pm eastern time to discuss the resumption.

Two players from each remaining playoff team, the owners of those 13 teams, commissioner Adam Silver, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts, and Hornets owner Michael Jordan (chair of the labor relations committee) will take part in that meeting, per Goodwill.

AUGUST 27, 1:07pm: The NBA playoffs are expected to resume on Saturday, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).

Following Wednesday’s boycotts, NBA players decided today that they would resume the season. However, Thursday’s games are being postponed and it sounds like Friday’s will be as well.

According to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe (Twitter link), the Celtics/Raptors second-round series that had been scheduled to begin on Thursday is now expected to tip off on Sunday. Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times notes (via Twitter) that nothing is official yet, but says it sounds like the Lakers and Trail Blazers will play Game 5 of their first-round series on Saturday.

While no other dates have been confirmed so far, it seems safe to assume that the games originally scheduled for Wednesday would take place on Saturday, with Thursday’s contests being rescheduled to Sunday.

That would mean that Game 5 in two other playoff series – Bucks/Magic and Rockets/Thunder – would take place on Saturday, with the Jazz/Nuggets and Clippers/Mavericks playing Game 6 of their respective series on Sunday.

With meetings between players and team owners scheduled to take place later today, we’ll have to wait for official word from the NBA before locking anything in.

Players Decide To Resume Playoffs; Thursday’s Games To Be Postponed

August 27th, 2020 at 11:01am CST by Luke Adams

The three NBA playoff games scheduled to take place on Thursday will be postponed, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links). However, players have decided to resume the postseason and discussions are underway about when that will happen, Wojnarowski reports.

Games appear likely to resume as soon as Friday, per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Jeff Goodman of Stadium (Twitter links).

[UPDATE: NBA Hopes To Resume Postseason By Saturday]

According to Charania (Twitter link), NBA players who met today want to find “new and improved ways” to make social justice statements as they prepare to restart play.

Another meeting will take place today on the Orlando campus at 4:00 pm eastern time, with two players from each team participating, per Goodman and Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter links). The goal of that meeting will be to formulate a specific action plan to address racial injustice issues and to work out the logistics of restarting play, a source tells MacMahon (Twitter link).

A meeting of NBA owners and players is also set up for later today, Wojnarowski and Marc Spears of ESPN report (via Twitter). It sounds like that will be a separate meeting, though it figures to focus on similar issues.

“The bubble is about more than just crowning a champion,” one veteran player told Spears (Twitter link). “More so now than ever. It felt like the message was fading. Hopeful this can create a new level of activism and commitment from our owners, (the) league, (and) teams towards real change.”

After the Bucks decided not to play Game 5 of their first-round series against the Magic on Wednesday to protest social and racial injustices, the Rockets, Thunder, Lakers, and Trail Blazers followed suit, and the NBA postponed those games.

Today’s contests between the Nuggets and Jazz, Celtics and Raptors, and Mavericks and Clippers will also need to be rescheduled. Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link) hears that one “common-sense” scenario being considered is to simply push each game back by two days, from Wednesday to Friday and Thursday to Saturday.

Following Wednesday’s boycott, players gathered last night to discuss next steps and that meeting reportedly got “emotional.” Players from the Lakers and Clippers voted in favor of ending the season, while other teams voted to continue playing and some players – including CJ McCollum – cautioned against giving up the platform afforded by the NBA’s bubble.

After further discussions both last night and this morning, LeBron James and other prominent players changed their positions, agreeing that it’s in players’ best interest to finish the season, tweets Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.

Sources tell Charania that players today discussed the sacrifices they’ve made to reach this point of the 2019/20 season, as well as the sense of normalcy that will be gained when family members are allowed to enter the Orlando campus next week (Twitter link). Everyone was ultimately in agreement on restarting the season, one player told Goodman (Twitter link).

Doncic, Porzingis Questionable For Game 6

August 26th, 2020 at 12:18pm CST by Luke Adams

Four key Mavericks players – Kristaps Porzingis (knee), Luka Doncic (ankle), Dorian Finney-Smith (hips), and Trey Burke (ankle) – are listed as questionable to play in Game 6 on Thursday, with Dallas’ season on the line, according to Brad Townsend and Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter links).

Mavericks Rule Out Kristaps Porzingis For Game 5

August 25th, 2020 at 11:13am CST by Luke Adams

The Mavericks have ruled out big man Kristaps Porzingis for Game 5 of their series against the Clippers due to Porzingis’ lingering right knee injury, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times.

It’s a tough turn of events for the Mavs, who are currently tied with the Clippers at two games apiece and could badly use their top frontcourt scorer in Tuesday night’s contest. Porzingis also missed Game 4 and Dallas pulled out a win, but it took a superhuman effort from Luka Doncic — he scored 43 points to go along with 17 rebounds and 13 assists, and hit a buzzer-beating 28-footer in overtime to secure the victory.

Porzingis underwent an MRI on his injured right knee this week and there’s no indication it showed any structural damage, though head coach Rick Carlisle didn’t offer many specifics on the results.

Assuming the Mavs use the same lineup as they did in Game 4, it’ll be Trey Burke taking Porzingis’ spot in the starting five. Since Dwight Powell is also on the shelf, Maxi Kleber, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Tim Hardaway Jr. figure to play major frontcourt minutes, with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Boban Marjanovic getting some playing time off the bench.

Dallas would be further short-handed if Finney-Smith is unable to play — he’s currently listed as questionable due to a left hip strain and right hip soreness.

Porzingis Expected To Be Game-Time Decision

August 24th, 2020 at 6:46pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Mavericks star forward Kristaps Porzingis was a late scratch for Game 4 of the first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. He’s listed as questionable for Tuesday’s pivotal Game 5 and will likely be a game-time decision, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. An MRI revealed no structural damage to Porzingis’ knee.

“Look, a lot of this is going to be hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute type stuff, probably into the later stages of tomorrow,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said.

Kristaps Porzingis' Status For Game 5 TBD

August 24th, 2020 at 10:50am CST by Luke Adams

Mavericks big man Kristaps Porzingis was set to undergo an MRI on his right knee on Sunday, per head coach Rick Carlisle. As Tim MaMahon of ESPN tweets, Porzingis’ status for Game 5 on Tuesday remains up in the air.

Injury Updates: Doncic, Beverley, Westbrook, Harris, Green

August 22nd, 2020 at 5:22pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Mavericks are listing star guard Luka Doncic as questionable for Game 4 against the Clippers, tweets Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. In today’s session with reporters, coach Rick Carlisle said Doncic, who left Friday night’s contest with a sprained left ankle, might be a “game-time decision” for Sunday.

“I wish I knew right now, but I don’t,” Carlisle said. “We have good depth to play without him, but he’s one of the best players in the world, so if we have to play without him, it’s a big loss.”

Doncic was scheduled to have an MRI on the ankle today, but the test was delayed because of an issue with the machine. He briefly returned to Game 3 after suffering the injury in the third quarter, but was removed again after about three minutes.

“I could run,” he told reporters, “but I couldn’t push off my left leg.”

There’s more injury news to pass along:

Clippers guard Patrick Beverley is listed as doubtful for Sunday, according to a tweet from the team. If he can’t play, it would mark the eighth game in the past nine that Beverley has missed with a strained left calf.
Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni continues to cite improvement from Russell Westbrook as he recovers from a strained quadriceps muscle, but hasn’t speculated on when he might return, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Westbrook’s running has been limited to an alter-G device that restricts how much of a player’s weight is placed on the treadmill. D’Antoni said Westbrook is “doing better, as expected. Every day he does a little bit more.”
Nuggets shooting guard Gary Harris has been upgraded to doubtful for Game 4, raising hopes that he might soon be ready to play for the first time in five months, writes Mike Singer of The Denver Post. A right hip strain has kept Harris out of action since the team arrived in Orlando.
The Celtics announced that small forward Javonte Green will miss his second straight game Sunday with a sprained right knee (Twitter link). Green’s court time in the playoffs has been limited to a brief appearance in Game 2.