The Dallas Mavericks are doing their best to shroud Luka Doncic's Game 1 status against the Utah Jazz in secrecy as he deals with a calf strain. However, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski's latest reporting suggests it's not looking good for Doncic to be able to play at the start of the series.

Woj says there's ā€œa lot of skepticismā€ about Doncic being ready for Saturday's Game 1:

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Doncic strained his calf in the regular-season finale. He underwent an MRI and a calf strain was confirmed, but the Mavs refused to put a timetable on the injury. The way Woj says it, there's a chance Doncic will be held out for Monday's Game 2 as well, and he would definitely be sitting out if this were still the regular season. The strain is evidently more than ā€œmild.ā€

Doncic will surely do whatever he can to be on the floor for this Game 1 in Dallas, but he and the Mavs need to be smart. If he needs to sit out a game in order to have a better chance of coming back healthy and not making the injury worse, so be it. Missing both home games to start the series would admittedly be tough with Games 3 and 4 in Utah, but, again, Dallas must be smart about this.

The Mavs would be in some trouble without Doncic, but they really improved as a team as the season went on, especially on the defensive end of the floor. Dallas would have to grind out wins without its offensive engine, which would be difficult but not impossible against a Jazz team that has had its own host of problems coming down the stretch of this season.

Continue to stay tuned for more injury updates on Luka Doncic as Game 1 draws closer.