The Dallas Mavericks entered their Thursday night matchup against the Phoenix Suns already having to endure the absence of Christian Wood, the team's second-leading scorer behind Luka Doncic. However, circumstances appear to have gone from bad to worse for the middling Mavericks after Doncic stepped on Mikal Bridges' foot on a turnaround attempt early on in their game against the Suns.

Luka Doncic then hobbled off the court and into the locker room on the next dead ball due to a possible ankle injury, per Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News.

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It remains unclear just how severe Luka Doncic's apparent ankle injury is. However, he could be in danger of missing time. Back in December 2021, Doncic missed 10 straight games after injuring his left ankle – the same ankle he hurt on Thursday night against the Suns.

The Mavs have now ruled Doncic out for the remainder of their game against the Suns, per Marc Stein, even if the X-rays on Doncic's ankle were negative.

Not much has to be said about the potential impact a prolonged absence from Luka Doncic would have on the Mavs. Even with Doncic not missing games due to injury (only doing so for resting purposes), the Mavs have remained smack-dab in the middle of the Western Conference playoff race. And to hammer home how valuable Doncic is to the Mavs, Dallas has gone winless in five tries without the Slovenian superstar in the lineup.

If Doncic were to miss time, Spencer Dinwiddie, Josh Green, and even Jaden Hardy would have to step up to try and at least approximate their star point guard's impact on offense. And if push comes to shove, this may finally spur the Mavs to pick up the slack and make some moves with the trade deadline approaching.