Mavericks’ ailing Parsons eyes return against Knicks

Chandler Parsons went through the majority of the Dallas Mavericks’ practice session Sunday at American Airlines Center.

But the four-year veteran forward doesn’t know if his sore lower back will improve in time for him to play in Tuesday night’s game in New York.

“We’ll see how it feels,” Parsons said. “Obviously I want to play. I don’t want to miss any more time. I hate not playing, but I’ve got to do what’s smart in the long run. But if it feels good enough to play, obviously I’m going to play.”

Parsons sat out Saturday’s 105-98 loss to the Golden State Warriors after his back didn’t respond quickly enough to treatment. The injury occurred during Tuesday’s 114-105 loss at Memphis when Parsons crashed to the floor after getting tangled up with Grizzlies guard Tony Allen.

The injury didn’t prevent Parsons from playing 34 minutes and scoring 20 points in Wednesday’s 112-107 triumph over New Orleans.

“I’ve got a big bruise on my back,” Parsons said. “Just kind of the muscles in my back tighten up. It’s just pretty sore.”

Looking ahead, the Mavs turned their attention away from the Warriors and wanted Parsons ready to play against the Knicks on Tuesday and at Detroit on Wednesday.

“He’s doing better,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “I expect him to be better [today] and we’ll see where we are, but he’s trending in the right direction.”

Parsons has only missed 17 of a possible 255 games during his three-plus seasons in the NBA. He said it “was brutal” having to watch the Warriors pick the Mavs’ defense apart.

“I don’t like it at all,” Parsons said. “I want to be out there so bad. That’s why I’m doing so much rehab to make sure I can get out there as quickly as possible.

“It’s still really sore, but it’s getting better every day. I’ve been doing two times a day rehab, so it’s getting better, but I’m still not there yet.”

The Mavs know that Parsons is an integral part of their team.

“That’s a tough one for him to miss against a very good team,” forward Dirk Nowitzki said. “We could have used, definitely, his weapons out there.

“They have a lot of lineups out there where they just switch everything, and I think it would have been good for him to drive some and get to the basket, make some of their bigs commit. But injuries are part of the game.’’

Mavericks intense

As the Mavs huddled Sunday after Saturday’s dismal first-quarter performance, falling behind the Warriors 39-18, they did so hoping to learn something from the bad start.

“It was intense around here in a good way,” center Tyson Chandler said. “We haven’t been able to get many practices, so it was great to come in and look at some adjustments and compete a little bit and get our defensive strategies together going into the New York game.

“But it’s going to take some games like that for us to get to where we want to get.”

Going to New York and Detroit pits the Mavs against two of the NBA’s worst teams before they return home to host the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs on Saturday.

“It’s one of those games [against the Warriors] to where we watched the film and now we’ve got to throw it away and not let it beat us twice and we’ve got to go get these two on the road,” Parsons said.　

This story was originally published December 14, 2014 at 8:14 PM with the headline "Mavericks’ ailing Parsons eyes return against Knicks."