Apparently Doncic’s injury wasn’t as serious as it looked
Luka Doncic’s left ankle sprain from Thursday’s game against the Phoenix Suns has been dubbed a “mild sprain” from reports and Doncic is considered day-to-day, according to both Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News.
Doncic injured the ankle in the first three minutes of the first quarter Thursday night after stepping on the foot of a Sun’s player. He immediately hobbled to the locker room and never returned to the bench while being ruled out. The fact that Doncic went straight to the locker room and was ruled out so quickly gave worry that the injury was potentially serious.
Thankfully it appears Doncic won’t miss much time, unless the Mavericks are being cheeky with their prognosis. If Doncic is truly day-to-day, it’s possible he could return as soon as Saturday against Utah. That might be too quick a turnaround, which leaves a two game homestand that could see Doncic’s return, with games Monday against Detroit and Thursday against New Orleans. With the two days off between the Detroit and New Orleans games, the Mavericks could give Doncic almost a full week off while only missing two games. We’ll get better clarity into Doncic’s return when the Mavericks release their first injury report for the Jazz game.
In the meantime, the Mavericks survived against the Suns with an impressive road win. While Doncic technically played, meaning this stat is a little wonky, it was truly Dallas’ first win without Doncic, losing the previous five games Doncic sat out for rest and injury. We’ll see if they can continue the streak Saturday if Doncic is inactive.