Dallas Mavericks: J.J. Barea Out “Weeks, Not Days”

Just when almost everyone was healthy, the Dallas Mavericks watched J.J. Barea go down with another calf injury on Friday night.

After appearing in just 17 games this season due to a previous calf injury, Barea found himself suiting up for his eighth straight game on Friday night against Utah.

Barea had scored in double figures in each of his last three games and had already scored 10 points in the game on Friday until he came down from a shot near the sideline. Barea came down and stepped back in an awkward way right in front of a fan that resulted in the two exchanging some words.

Barea explained the play after the game.

"“After the shot, I went to step and run to the other side and I felt like I ran into the guys behind me, the fan sitting down. I looked back and nobody had touched me. That’s when I went to step and I knew something was bad with my calf,” Barea said."

When I asked Barea if him and the fan exchanged words he admitted the fan didn’t do anything.

“I looked because I thought they hit me or I hit their leg, but no, it was myself,” Barea said.

Barea instantly felt something wrong in his calf as he limped heavily down the court. Eventually he curled up on the court in the corner before the team surrounded him after an immediate timeout. He went immediately into the tunnel.

“Way higher now, higher and in the middle of the calf,” Barea said when describing this calf injury compared to his last one on the same calf.

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In Barea’s six games back prior to Friday, the Mavericks went 3-3 in those games with a three game winning streak. Barea was playing great off the bench and the team was having fun…then the injury happened on Friday.

“Yeah this is awful, I’m playing great basketball, I’m having so much fun out there and we are winning games. I was feeling good today and that is why I let coach let me in there because I was feeling good and moving good,” Barea said.”Now I’m gonna shut it down for a while.”

Just when Dallas was close to being fully healthy, now they won’t have their spark plug off the bench for quite some time.

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When Rick Carlisle was asked about it post game, he simply said we are looking at Barea being out for “weeks, not days.”