Grimes gives chilling details of Mavericks' locker room illness: 'I couldn't move'

Dallas Mavericks, Quentin Grimes
Dallas Mavericks, Quentin Grimes | Sam Hodde/GettyImages

After last night's loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Dallas Mavericks are now 20-15 on the season and have lost four games in a row. Ever since Luka Doncic went down with a calf strain on Christmas Day, the Mavericks have struggled to win games as they are just 1-4 since he got injured. They haven't been able to play as well as they have in the past without Doncic in the lineup, but it also must be considered that they haven't been at full strength outside of Doncic either.

Injuries and suspension have played a part in why Dallas has been dropping these games considering that Naji Marshall has been suspended for the last four games after the altercation with Jusuf Nurkic in the Mavs' game against the Phoenix Suns, but the main problem that the Mavs can't seem to get over is the illness that has swept the locker room over the last few months.

Since the end of November, Mavs role players have been going down with illness left and right, causing eight players to miss some sort of time, and that continued on Friday night. Kyrie Irving was unexpectedly scratched on Friday afternoon because of illness, and after seemingly starting to get over the illness over the past few weeks, it seems to have returned as Thompson missed a game this week as well.

This illness is no joke, and Quentin Grimes knows that better than anyone.

Grimes sheds light on locker room illness wreaking havoc on the Mavs

Grimes dealt with the sickness at the end of November, causing him to miss a game, and he gave an in-depth look at the symptoms he dealt with after Dallas' loss to Cleveland on Friday night.

Grimes said the illness was a stomach bug for him, and he "couldn't even get out of bed."

He later continued to say that he "couldn't hold anything down" while he was sick, and "couldn't move" while having "cold sweats." This illness seems like it hit Grimes extremely hard, and him not being able to move while having cold sweats is concerning. Grimes' description of the illness is the most in-depth answer that has been given since it started, and it gives everyone a real look into what the Mavs have been forced to deal with.

Whatever is being passed around the Mavs locker room seems extremely contagious and has caused serious problems for them over the last month and some change. Jason Kidd also talked about the illness that is being passed around before the game, and they are doing whatever they can to try to slow the spread of whatever is going around.

Kidd said that the team is having fewer meetings and shorter meetings in order to try to not get each other sick, and Grimes even said that they aren't practicing as much because of it. This locker room illness has truly affected the way the team operates right now, and that stretches beyond the players.

Both Kidd and Grimes said that the coaching staff has gotten sick over this span as well, emphasizing just how widespread this illness has become. Independently, sources have revealed to The Smoking Cuban that other staff members within the organization, beyond the team itself, have also been affected.

Grimes said he has never seen anything like this, "even in high school and college," and "everybody (is) getting sick." Kidd said he has never seen anything like this outside of when the league had to deal with COVID-19 and hopes the team can get well soon. His New Year's resolution for the team was "health," and the Mavericks need that resolution to come true badly.

Schedule