The Mavs star likely won’t be able to play in Saturday’s opener against the Jazz, dealing a considerable blow to Dallas’ playoff hopes.
The Dallas Mavericks will host the Utah Jazz in the first game of the 2022 NBA Playoffs on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET, and that early draw didn’t do them an awful lot of favors considering they saw Luka Doncic leave their regular season finale with a left calf strain. An MRI confirmed Doncic’s injury but the team would not offer a timetable for his return, and they likely won’t make anything official until Saturday just before tipoff. On Thursday, Doncic was at the Mavs facility, but only doing weights work and nothing on the court yet. Zoom in enough and you can see Luka Doncic on the squat rack. Nothing in court for him yet. pic.twitter.com/yzVt1CtE0U Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 14, 2022 Later in the day, word emerged from Shams Charania of The Athletic that the Mavs are not expecting to have their superstar for Game 1 against the Jazz on Saturday, an obvious blow to their hopes of making it out of the first round for the first time since landing Doncic in the 2018 NBA Draft.
