Disaster struck for the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night versus the Sacramento Kings in a 122-98 blowout loss. The Mavericks lost both Jaden Hardy and Kyrie Irving due to lower body injuries in the contest, as they are seemingly cursed with the injury bug this season to the point where things may never start to look up. 

While Hardy’s ankle injury didn’t look pretty, Irving’s left knee sprain that he suffered toward the end of the first quarter looked particularly gruesome. Irving stayed down on the ground for a few minutes, and despite being in severe pain and unable to put any pressure onto his left knee, he stepped up to the free throw line and made both shots at the stripe before getting out of the game.

This points toward how Irving is a total embodiment of the idealistic leader the Mavericks and the city of Dallas could ever wish for in this post-Doncic era, but now they’ll be without his services for a decent chunk of time at the bare minimum.

Renowned doctor weighs in on Irving’s injury, and all hope is not lost

Per renowned sports medicine doctor Brian Sutterer, Irving’s injury looked like a fairly mild hyperextension of the knee, especially since it was a non-contact hyperextension. Giannis Antetokounmpo missed roughly two weeks in the playoffs with this same injury before, and Sutterer thinks Irving’s injury is fairly comparable to Antetokounmpo’s.

However, Sutterer stressed that an injury of this nature could cause Irving to miss the rest of the season if truly severe enough, as it’s not possible to know the true severity of the knee sprain until MRIs are completed and a proper plan for recovery can be determined.

While Sutterer’s update can give Mavericks fans hope that Irving’s injury isn’t all too serious, there’s no way of telling how much time he will actually miss yet, according to Sutterer as well. All signs are pointing toward this not being a serious enough injury to throw Irving’s season away, but there’s a lot of grey area here, especially since Irving couldn’t even leave the court on his own power.

If Irving misses an extended period of time, there’s almost no hope that the Mavericks can recoup their season to set themselves up for a solid run in the playoffs, and Irving missing more than two weeks would drastically hinder Dallas’ chances of making the playoffs.

With Hardy going down as well, the Mavericks’ guard depth is razor-thin for the foreseeable future, and it will take one of the more miraculous coaching efforts in history from head coach Jason Kidd to get Dallas’ role players to maximize some of the wild lineups that will be on the floor.

Hope is fleeting for this Mavericks season, but Irving’s willpower and determination are some things that the rest of the Mavericks can try and take from as this stretch continues, as there have rarely ever been instances where any NBA team has encountered this many injuries through 62 games in the regular season.

Brandon Williams, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Dante Exum will all have to shield a much bigger role than they are accustomed to, but hopefully new center Kai Jones can continue to be a play finisher off their playmaking abilities like he was able to in his debut on Monday.

This Mavericks roster is as fragmented as ever with Irving’s injury, but hopefully the Mavericks can finally start to get healthy piece by piece in the coming weeks, and this update from Sutterer at least offers a solid chance at that possibility.