Mavericks Guard Suffers Fourth Ankle Injury of the Season Against Clippers
The Dallas Mavericks’ injury woes continue, and their streak of bad luck shows no signs of ending.
This season has been especially brutal for the Mavericks, with injuries hitting the roster so hard that they’ve nearly had to forfeit games. At times, they’ve been forced to play small forwards as centers and have even lost two-way players due to hitting their game limits. Things got worse late Friday night into early Saturday morning in their game against the LA Clippers.
With only a few minutes left in the game, guard Jaden Hardy suffered another setback—rolling his right ankle after driving into the lane and dishing out a pass. In obvious pain, he scooted off the court before being helped to the locker room. Hardy ended the game with 16 points, shooting 5-of-14 from the field.
This marks the fourth time Hardy has sprained his right ankle this season. The previous incidents occurred on December 5 (vs. Wizards), January 17 (vs. Thunder), and March 3 (vs. Kings). While ankle injuries are notoriously tricky, this string of bad luck is particularly severe.
Now, only Spencer Dinwiddie remains as the team’s sole healthy point guard. Kyrie Irving is out with a torn ACL, Dante Exum has a broken left hand, Brandon Williams is unavailable due to two-way contract limits, and Hardy is once again sidelined. While the Mavericks could sign Williams to a full NBA contract, cap limitations mean that move can’t be made until April 10. At this point, the team desperately needs a playmaker—someone like Luka Doncic—to return.
