Mavericks Hope to Enter All-Star Break In One Piece

I’m usually one to try and create a clever title you’ll either love, hate, or hate that you love (only those three options available) but I’m pretty confident in the assertion that the Mavericks want to win their last game and stay healthy before their week long break during All-Star Weekend, and then on through until they go to OKC on February 19th to battle the rival Thunder.

Fortunate to have avoided the injury bug most of the season, that all changed when Rajon Rondo got karate chopped by Richard Jefferson‘s knee.

Yes, our Richard Jefferson. Player on player crime is a problem nobody wants to have. Although the accidental kind is the far preferable kind.

Just before the calendar flipped to February, Rondo was lost before January’s final page had its turn.

Then the double whammy Monday night when Tyson Chandler‘s rolled ankle 39 seconds into the contest was compounded by Monta Ellis suffering “some sort of strain” –according to Coach Rick Carlisle— three minutes and 58 seconds after the big man departed from the eventual blowout home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The man in the middle won’t play tonight against the very young and constantly improving and Gordon Hayward-having Utah Jazz. If it was a playoff game, we would probably see him.

What’s more concerning is  the status of the team’s leading scorer Monta Ellis. It’s been almost two days since the injury and we still don’t even have MRI results. Given the nature of the injury, a strain, this is very worrisome.

Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

If the Mavs were to be without the man who makes the “Fellis Jellis” for an extended period of time, it’d be arguably the biggest loss to the team.

The argument is between him and Tyson, who’s absence forced Greg Smith and Dwight Powell to try and maim Deandre Jordan. Jordan finished with 22 points and a career-high as well as NBA season-high 27 rebounds in the blowout Clips victory.

Dallas can’t afford to lose either of these players long term, that’s obvious. But for Wednesday night they’ll try to piece it together without Tyson, Rondo and no Monta Ellis for the first time in his Mavs career. The game also ends a 218 consecutive games streak for Monta Ellis.

Old-New addition Bernard “Sarge” James, however, will return to the Mavericks. Even with the injuries, a roster spot was already open and I expect it to be filled with a veteran big in at least one move by Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson during the All-Star Break.

As for the Break, it will be welcome to a beat up team and an older-by-the-game Dirk Nowitzki, but to go into it with a win against the Jazz would make us all feel better, granted that strain for Have it All isn’t severe.

As Coach Carlisle said after Monday’s defeat,

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