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The Dallas Mavericks know they must be careful with Tim Hardaway Jr.'s hamstring injury, but they're optimistic it's not a serious issue. The Mavs wing injured his hamstring following a breakaway steal during Sunday's 108-95 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
After the game, Hardaway gave a promising update:
“I’m walking fine and I didn’t feel nothing pop or anything like that,” said Hardaway, according to Dwain Price of Mavs.com. “Right now I just got a lot of treatment done during the time they were playing. Time will tell, but right now I got treatment and I feel OK.”
The Mavs know they're fortunate that the injury is minor, and head coach Rick Carlisle doesn't expect Hardaway to miss too much time. He's listed as day-to-day.
This isn't the first time Hardaway has sustained an injury of this kind, which now makes him able to address it with a smarter approach:
“You don’t want to mess with nothing like that,” he said. “You don’t want it to linger on for more than what it needs to be — I understand that.
“I had this done before a couple of years ago, I know the process and how long it needs to be for it to get 100 percent healthy to go out there and compete with my guys. I don’t want to hurt them to give them 78 percent when I know I can wait another day or two and be 100 percent.”
Hardaway will likely miss a few games before he's able to return in full capacity for the Mavs. Before his seven-minute stint against the Lakers came to a close, he scored 25 points against the Golden State Warriors, making 6-of-8 3-pointers.
