Mavericks suffer near-nightmare scenario with scary Luka Doncic injury

Heading into Tuesday night's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Dallas Mavericks were 2-1 following a win over the Utah Jazz on Monday night.

Dallas' bench finally started to show up as both Dereck Lively II and Spencer Dinwiddie were good on the bench, but Dallas wasn't excellent on the boards for the entirety of that game. Maxi Kleber's absence due to a right hamstring injury was definitely felt, but the Mavs were still able to claw out a win over Utah in a game that was way closer than it should have been.

Kleber's injury is going to hurt the Mavs way more than anyone expected, but Dallas almost suffered an injury that would have hurt more than any other injury they could have suffered.

Doncic's right leg injury scared every Mavericks fan momentarily

In the middle of the second quarter, Luka Doncic injured his right leg on a drive to the rim as he had to hobble back to the locker room and missed the remainder of the half. There is no official diagnosis for exactly what Doncic did, but the heart of every Mavs fan dropped as it did not look great at the time. He wasn't putting much pressure on his right leg as he was helped to the locker room by Markieff Morris, and injuries when players are holding the back of their knee.

Mavs fans' concerns were alleviated when the team came back out for halftime as Doncic warmed up and ended up playing in the second half, but the concern was real for those 20 minutes when everyone was unsure about exactly what happened. Doncic is the heart and soul of this team, and they can't afford to lose him to injury this early.

Doncic finally got healthy over the offseason after an injury-filled playoff run, and him going down with a serious injury in the fourth game of the season would have been less than ideal. It looks like he is going to be just fine, but this injury is something to keep an eye on if it causes him to labor over the next few games.

Dallas plays against the Houston Rockets on Thursday night, and they'll need a Doncic bounce-back game. He has been a bit rusty over the last few games since his dominant game against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night, and him gaining some momentum heading into the home stretch would be huge for him.

He and Klay Thompson are forming a special bond on the floor, and Dallas' big three is looking like they are built to compete with the best teams in the NBA. Doncic is at the center of it all, and him staying healthy could make or break Dallas' early success.