‘Masking Tape Mavs’ overcame injuries to advance to the playoffs
As he prepares to embark on what he hopes will be a long journey through the playoffs, Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle has come up with a fitting moniker for his team — the Masking Tape Mavs.
All season the Mavericks have been trying to overcome one injury after another in an attempt to have enough healthy bodies to secure a playoff berth. From Chandler Parsons’ right knee surgery to Deron Williams missing eight games late in the season while nursing a sports hernia, to J.J. Barea’s strained right groin, the Mavericks’ medical staff has been busy trying to keep everyone upright.
“We’re the Masking Tape Mavs,” Carlisle said. “The masking tape just refers to us being banged up. Hey, this is a fighting group.”
That Mavericks’ “fighting group’’ will try and glue everything together in time to play Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round playoff series on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
I feel good, and I’m getting better. I’m excited for this playoff series that’s coming.
Mavericks guard J.J. Barea
who has been slowed by a right groin strain.Game 2 is also in Oklahoma City at 7 p.m. Monday before moving to Dallas for Game 3 at 6 p.m. Thursday, and Game 4 at 7 p.m. on April 23. If needed, Game 5 will be in Oklahoma City on April 25, Game 6 in Dallas on April 28. Game 7 would be back Oklahoma City on April 30.
Mavericks players missed 96 games this season because of injuries, but the Mavericks expect Barea and Devin Harris (sprained left thumb) to play in Game 1. Barea said he will practice Friday before the flight to Oklahoma City.
“I feel good, and I’m getting better,” Barea said. “I’m excited for this playoff series that’s coming. I feel better and I need to get a little practice action [Friday] and get ready for Saturday. These couple of days here I got a lot of treatment, a lot of time with the trainers, so it should be better.”
Every game there is another player who can give a little bit of himself and step up for the team and help the team.
Mavericks center Salah Mejri
While Barea and Harris have the green light for Game 1, the news is not so good for center David Lee, who injured his right heel during Wednesday’s 96-91 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the regular-season finale.
“He has a plantar fascia injury to his right heel,” Carlisle said. “He is going to be receiving treatment. At this point he would be listed as questionable at best for Game 1, and probably more doubtful, but we’ll see. I don’t have an official listing and we’re not even 24 hours removed from when it happened.”
Carlisle didn’t want to get into the details on if Lee suffered a tear of his plantar fascia until he can gather more information.
In the meantime, since they’ve had to deal with more than their share of injuries this season, the Mavericks have adopted a next-man-up philosophy.
“The good thing is you saw me stepping up for the team, saw Justin Anderson,” center Salah Mejri said. “J.J. was a hot player for a couple of games, then he got injured, then Devin Harris came out and had a great game. That’s the good thing about playing basketball. Every game there is another player who can give a little bit of himself and step up for the team and help the team.”
Barea did that two weeks ago when he was named the Western Conference Player of the Week after leading the Mavericks to four straight wins.
“This is a deep team,” Barea said. “Everybody that got their chance to play when guys got hurt stepped up. We’ve got a lot of vets, a lot of guys that have been through it, that know that a lot of injuries happen in an NBA season. So we’re kind of used to it.”
We’ve got to have some help from Mother Nature with the healing.
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle
Carlisle simply appreciates the determination his team showed when it dropped 10 of 12 games to fall to 35-38, then clinched a playoff berth by winning seven of its next eight games.
“I’ve have a lot of teams that I’ve really loved to be around,” said Carlisle, whose team finished the regular season with a 42-40 record. “This is one of my favorite teams that I’ve ever worked with just because they had to do it the hard way.
“They had to do it with a pretty significant style change, some pretty major sacrifices throughout the roster, and we had to grind. We’re going to continue to take that tact and we’re going to be aggressive and we’re going to be opportunistic.”
And they hope to be close to 100 percent by the time Game 1 tips off.
“Well,” Carlisle said, “we’ve got to have some help from Mother Nature with the healing.”
Dwain Price: 817-390-7760, @dwainprice
This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 8:43 PM with the headline "‘Masking Tape Mavs’ overcame injuries to advance to the playoffs."