The Dallas Mavericks' injury luck in the 2024-25 season has been like something we have never seen before. Any time that one of Dallas' players returns to the lineup from injury, a different one goes down, and this neverending cycle is throwing a major wrench into their season and quest to reach the NBA Finals two seasons in a row for the first time in franchise history.
Luka Doncic missing 21 games and Kyrie Irving missing 10 games at the halfway mark of the season is not something that fans anticipated, but the injuries to the role players have been just as bad. Dante Exum has missed the entire season due to a wrist injury, P.J. Washington has missed some games due to injury, and nearly the entire roster battled an illness that wouldn't leave them alone over the course of over a month.
To make matters worse, Dwight Powell and Jaden Hardy went down due to injuries on last Friday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but neither of these injuries come close to the brutal blow Mavericks fans were unexpectedly dealt on Wednesday afternoon.
Dereck Lively II's originally reported injury just got exponentially worse
According to ESPN's Shams Charania, Mavericks center Dereck Lively II has a small fracture in his foot, and he is expected to miss 2-3 months. This is a major turn of events for Lively II's injury diagnosis, as his injury from last Tuesday night's game against the Denver Nuggets was originally listed as a right ankle sprain. He even tried sitting down on the bench and doing some band resistance work on his injured ankle/foot before heading back to the locker room with a member of the training staff, showing that even he may not have known that his injury was as serious as it turned out to be.
Ankle sprains aren't unusual for Lively II, as he has battled his fair share of these injuries over his first two seasons in his career, but his injury going from an ankle sprain to a fractured foot is something that no one could have expected. To make things even weirder, Lively II was listed as questionable for Monday's game against the Charlotte Hornets before being ruled out, and he was even seen walking on his injured foot without crutches or a walking boot last Friday night when Dallas played Oklahoma City.
This initial optimism from Mavericks fans quickly turned into panic during Jason Kidd's pregame press conference on Monday, and now we know exactly why Kidd answered a question about Lively II's injury the way he did.
Kidd said "I don't think so," when asked if Lively II would be returning to the lineup soon before the game against the Hornets, and following today's report, it looks like Lively II could be out until at least the start of the postseason. Lively II's importance to the team is immeasurable, and the initial trade rumors about Daniel Gafford can now be thrown out the window considering Lively II will miss significant time. Dallas won't get to impose their dominant center duo on the rest of the league for a few months, and Gafford is going to have his hands full until Lively II returns.
It remains unknown exactly when Dallas found out that Lively II's injury was a fractured foot rather than a sprained ankle, and this is one of the first times in recent memory that we've seen such a dramatic change from what was originally diagnosed to what actually happened. Dallas' battle to remain in the hunt in the Western Conference just got exponentially harder, and we'll have you covered with all the latest on Lively II's injury moving forward.
