Renowned doctor offers Mavericks fans hope after awful Kyrie Irving injury

Editor's Note: Kyrie Irving was ruled out for the season with a torn ACL on March 4 after this article was originally published.

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. The worst fears were confirmed on Tuesday morning as Shams Charania reported Irving suffered a torn ACL. It is the worst case scenario for the Mavericks in a season that has gone horribly wrong.

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. Losing Kyrie hurts, but the Mavs still have hope of reaching the Play-In Tournament.