Doncic injured in Game 3 loss; status unknown for Game 4
Watching Luka Doncic roll his ankle in Disney World hurt all the way from Slovenia to Dallas to Fort Worth.
The Mavs/Clippers from the regular season showed up on Friday night in Game 3 of the playoffs, but that development did not compare to the status of The Mavs’ Man.
The Mavs lost Game 3 130-122, and may have lost the series. The Clippers lead the first-round series, 2-1.
With 3:58 remaining in the third quarter, Doncic was trying to defend L.A. Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard on a drive to the basket; Doncic stepped awkwardly on his left foot and rolled his ankle.
He immediately took himself out of the game, and hopped off the floor. Television cameras in the arena showed Doncic hopping all the way into the Mavericks’ locker room.
A few minutes later, he came back to the court with the Mavs trailing by 16 points. The diagnosis was a sprained ankle.
“It’s not that bad, honestly. I had luck it was my left ankle not my right,” Doncic said after the game in a Zoom call with reporters.
He returned for the fourth quarter for three minutes, and actually did enough to collect a triple-double, with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
“We still had a chance to win. I could run a little bit, but I couldn’t push off my left leg,” he said.
The left ankle wasn’t right. He checked out with a little less than nine minutes remaining in the game to return to the locker room for treatment.
He had an X-ray taken before returning to the sideline wearing slides on his feet. The best news was he was not wearing a cast.
He left the game limping badly, with his ankle wrapped in ice. He is scheduled for an MRI on Saturday.
Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said it’s not the same ankle Doncic has sprained previously.
“He did come back and try it, but it wasn’t moving well,” Carlisle said. “We’ll see where he is (Saturday) and Sunday morning.
“It’s hard to say how this is going to be. We have every advanced treatment modality. We’ll see how this responds the next 36 hours.”
The Mavericks, who gave up a franchise-record 45 points in the second quarter and were chasing the game seemingly all night, actually managed to make it a game with Luka on the bench. Briefly.
Despite trailing by 17 after three quarters, the Mavs cut the lead to single digits without Luka.
Seth Curry and Kristaps Porzingis combined for 56 points, but defensively the Mavs could not slow down the Clippers.
Even had Luka been in the lineup and healthy, this was not their game.
The Clippers shot 52 percent from the floor, and were the better team on Friday just as they were during the regular season when they swept the season series from the Mavericks.
Leonard led all scorers with 36 points, and the Clippers had seven players finish in double figures.
Leonard has thus far been guarded mostly by Mavs forward Maxi Kleber, who has been over-powered in the first three games. Leonard has scored a combined 100 points so far in this series.
Leonard’s All-Star teammate Paul George continues to have an awful series; he scored 11 points on 3-of-16 shooting.
Game 4 is Sunday afternoon.
The only thing that matters is the left ankle of Luka Doncic.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 11:00 PM.
