In the final week of the regular season, two Western Conference teams in very different positions for making the playoffs square off. The Sacramento Kings will play the Dallas Mavericks on the road on Wednesday night.
Injury Updates on Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and Domantas Sabonis
The Dallas Mavericks lost at Atlanta on Sunday, making it their seventh loss in the last eight games.
On Tuesday, the Mavericks were 12.5 games behind the Grizzlies for the Southwest Division lead. They were 11th in the West, behind the Thunder by one game for the final playoff place.
Kyrie Irving (Foot) is likely to play in this game.
As Irving deals with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, there has been talk of shutting down the point guard for the rest of the regular season.
If they have less of a chance of making the Play-In Tournament on Friday (when they play the Bulls) or Sunday (when they play the Spurs), he may decide to skip those games.
But until Dallas makes a final decision, Irving should continue to suit up and play well.
Irving missed four games in a row in the middle and end of March because of his foot problem, but he has played in all six games since then. On Sunday against the Hawks in overtime, he scored 41 points on 16-for-27 shooting in 44 minutes, which was his best game since then.
Luka Doncic (thigh) might be able to play Wednesday against the Kings.
Doncic said earlier on Tuesday that he plans to play on Wednesday, and the fact that he is probably going to play backs up that claim.
After missing five games, the All-Star point guard came back and scored 31.0 points, got 9.0 rebounds, and gave out 8.9 assists in seven straight games.
Doncic and Irving will continue to play in every game for the rest of the regular season, despite rumors to the contrary. This is true even though Dallas is currently in 11th place in the Western Conference.
On the opposite side of the court, Domantas Sabonis scored 16 points and De’Aaron Fox scored 23 points, and the Kings beat the New Orleans Pelicans 121-103 on Tuesday night to win the Pacific Division title for the first time since the 2002-03 season.
Sabonis keeps playing at a very high level and is the Kings’ go-to player every single night.
In his last 10 games, he has averaged 20.9 points, 12.1 boards, and 7.4 assists per game.
Kings injuries:
- Matthew Dellavedova (Finger) – Out
Mavericks injuries:
- Luka Doncic (Thigh) – Questionable
- Kyrie Irving (Foot) – Questionable
