Injured star Luka Doncic will join the Dallas Mavericks on their upcoming road trip and could play as soon as Saturday in Salt Lake City against the Utah Jazz.
After missing the past five games due to an injured wrist, Doncic returned to practice with his teammates on Friday. It’s uncertain whether he’ll play against Utah or Sunday in Portland during the Mavericks’ weekend road trip, but he will be with the team.
“He’s doing his individual workouts. Everything I’ve heard or seen is trending in the right direction,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said on Wednesday.
Unlike last season, when the Mavericks only won four of 12 games in Doncic’s absence, Dallas has fared well without their top gun since he was injured on Nov. 19 against New Orleans. The Mavs are 4-1 in that stretch, including a 129-119 win at Atlanta on Monday and Wednesday’s 129-114 victory over the New York Knicks.
Remarkably, Dallas had four players score at least 20 points in each of those most recent wins, setting a team record. Against the Knicks, Naji Marshall scored 24, Kyrie Irving had 23 and Quentin Grimes and Spencer Dinwiddie scored 21 each.
Marshall has been particularly effective in Doncic’s absence. He’s averaged 23 points on 63.3 percent shooting while hitting half of his 3-point attempts in the past four games.
Dallas’ depth has been critical to their 11-8 record. They’ve had at least six players reach double figures in each of their last six games. In the Mavericks’ 123-120 win over Denver on Nov. 22, seven players scored in double figures.
The Jazz haven’t had similar success on the scoreboard but their players are getting experience and playing time for a variety of reasons, including injuries.
In Wednesday’s 122-103 home loss to the Nuggets, Utah was without Lauri Markkanen (personal reasons), John Collins (left knee contusion), Jordan Clarkson (left plantar fasciitis) and Kyle Filipowski (lower leg inflammation).
“We will play some lineups tonight that none of us in this room have seen,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said before that game vs. Denver. “We will play some lineups tonight that maybe none of us in this room had even thought about. But in some ways, these nights are fun because we get to lean into our creativity as a staff and as a team.”
Collin Sexton led Utah with 26 points, Keyonte George had 23 points, Walker Kessler totaled 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Brice Sensabaugh tallied 13 points off the bench.
Nikola Jokic scored 21 of his 30 points in the opening half, helping the Nuggets turn a 12-point deficit into a 10-point lead en route to the blowout win.
“We still have these little windows of the game that turn into kind of like a little disaster,” Hardy said. “That four-to-five-minute window is really where the game was decided.”
The Jazz were grateful to give Congolese player Oscar Tshiebwe, the 2022 consensus national player of the year from Kentucky, his first playing experience with the team in the loss, too. He had three points and nine rebounds.
“I love everything about Oscar. He just makes you feel good,” Hardy said. “He’s such a good human being. I wish I was more like Oscar.”
