Mavericks’ Parsons could miss rest of series with knee injury

Chandler Parsons will be re-evaluated Wednesday by Dallas Mavericks team physician, Dr. T.O. Souryal, to determine the severity of his right knee injury that has taken a long time to heal.

So long that Parsons might be in jeopardy of missing the reminder of the best-of-seven first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets.

Parsons sat out Game 2 Tuesday night at the Toyota Center because he’s still had swelling and soreness. Parsons has been dealing with the injury for 24 days.

“I will say this, it’s become clear to those who are close to me or him that he’s been in more pain than he’s let on,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “The fact that the knee has not responded and the swelling has not dissipated the way that we had hoped to means right now we’ve got to pull the plug on him [Tuesday].”

The Mavs also were without backup combo guard Devin Harris (toe) on Tuesday night.

Parsons suffered his injury during a hard fall March 29 at Indiana. However, he stayed in the game, and then played 37 minutes three days later at Oklahoma City.

He missed the final six games of the regular season before playing in the playoff opener Saturday against the Rockets.

An MRI exam revealed no structural damage to his knee, but the Mavericks don’t know if the four-year veteran will be able to play the remainder of this series.

“I’m concerned for him, period,” Carlisle said. “I think we’ll know more [Wednesday].”

In his first game back Saturday in Game 1, Parsons surprisingly played 36 minutes, finishing with 10 points on 5-of-15 shooting. He also limped off the court to the dressing room late in the second quarter, but did return to start the second half.

Since Saturday, Parsons’ knee has continued to be an issue that has concerned the Mavs.

“The knee has not responded the way we had hoped,” Carlisle said. “This is a young man who’s very important to our team now and in the future, and we’re very concerned.”

As far as Harris is concerned, he has an injured left great toe. Harris suffered the injury April 13 game at Utah, then sat out last Wednesday’s regular-season finale against Portland.

Harris played 10 minutes in Game 1, but aggravated the injury and hasn’t played since.

“His toe is getting a little bit better, but he’s not ready to play,” Carlisle said. “The hope is that he’ll do well enough to where he can play [Friday in Game 3].

“But again, he’s got a situation that’s sensitive because it involves his foot … and we’ve got to be careful. We’ll update his status [Wednesday].”

Without Parsons and Harris, the Mavs have to go deep into their bench with Richard Jefferson, Al-Farouq Aminu, and Raymond Felton and possibly even Charlie Villanueva playing larger roles than expected.

“We’ve got a deep team, we’ve had guys step up all year,” Carlisle said. “Obviously R.J. and Aminu become more important guys at the small forward position, Villanueva becomes a more important guy because you’re down some manpower at a position that goes from [small forward] to [power forward].

“And then Felton now is in the mix clearly. We’ll go with the guys that we have available and we’ll come out with guns blazing.”

This story was originally published April 21, 2015 at 10:17 PM with the headline "Mavericks’ Parsons could miss rest of series with knee injury."