The Dallas Mavericks caught a double black eye Wednesday night against CJ McCollum and the New Orleans Pelicans on the road. Apart from suffering a 113-106 loss to the Pels, the Mavs also saw Luka Doncic leave the game because of injury.
Luka Doncic was seen having trouble staying on the court, especially in the third quarter where he would play his final minutes of the contest.
“I think we can all see he's not moving well,” Jason Kidd said after the game about what he observed before Luka Doncic exited the contest (h/t Andrew Lopez of ESPN).
Before getting forced out, Luka Doncic scored 15 points and shot just 4-for-14 from the floor. He did go 6-for-8 from the free-throw line, though, and also dished out eight dimes, including one that's going to be played over and over again in the highlights in the coming days.
With Luka Doncic getting ruled out, the Mavs turned to Kyrie Irving to handle most of the load on offense. Irving finished with 27 points with six rebounds and four assists in 41 minutes, while Tim Hardaway chipped in 17 points in a losing effort. Christian Wood came off the bench and added 15 points.
Doncic's status for the Pelicans game was already in question ahead of it as the Mavericks typically hold him out in back-to-back games (Dallas played the Utah Jazz a night before) but decided to push through with him for Wednesday's meeting with the Pelicans.
It will be interesting to see whether Luka Doncic will play on Saturday against the Memphis Grizzlies.