Cooper Flagg appeared at Saturday’s game between Duke and Clemson with a boot on his left foot, but Marc Stein writes that league sources indicate that the Mavericks believe they’re lucky that his midfoot sprain is not a more severe injury (subscriber link).
Stein adds that there’s still no specific timeline for how long Flagg will be out with this injury, and that a more pressing concern for the team is how to keep their star rookie’s energy and enthusiasm up through what is like the longest losing streak of his basketball life.
The Mavericks have lost nine games in a row coming into the All-Star break, which Stein notes is the longest losing streak since the 1997/98 season. Dallas is currently two games up from the Jazz in the standings and 1.5 games behind the Grizzlies, who have embarked on their own rebuild after trading Jaren Jackson Jr. to the aforementioned Jazz.
With Jackson Jr. out for the rest of the season following knee surgery and Utah owing their pick to the Thunder if it falls outside of the top-eight, how quickly Dallas brings the productive Flagg back will be something to monitor moving forward.
We have more from around the Southwest Division:
- Kyrie Irving announced on Saturday that he will soon be giving an update on whether or not he plans to return for the Mavericks this season. In his newsletter, Stein writes that while it would be beneficial for Dallas’ draft plans for Irving to sit out the rest of the season, his sources tell him that the decision will ultimately be a collaborative one between Irving and the team and will partly depend on whether the star point guard feels like his body needs more time or he wants to try to work some rust off in-season.
- In the midst of his 18th season in the league, Kevin Durant is more concerned with making sure he remembers all the moves in his arsenal than adding new ones to it, Varun Shankar writes for the Houston Chronicle. “There’s so much I’m thinking about. I don’t want to forget some stuff in my package and it goes away,” Durant said. “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” Shankar details the Rockets‘ star’s meticulous pre-game workouts, going through balance drills designed to engage his legs as much as he does shooting work. When it comes to a bad workout, assistant coach Royal Ivey puts it bluntly: “I haven’t seen one,” he says.
- Cedric Coward has gone from mystery box draft prospect to breakout player for the Grizzliesstarting 35 of the 48 games he’s played this season and averaging 13.3 points and 6.2 rebounds. He recently sat down with Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor to talk about his rookie year and what improvements come next. When asked about lessons taken away from being guarded by some of the league’s premier defenders, Coward spoke to a late-game situation against the Thunder and Alex Caruso. “Just keep it simple. The biggest moment I learned that was when we played Oklahoma City at home,” Coward said. “Last possession, Caruso put me in a box. And I was too complicated in what I was trying to do, so for me, I wish I could get that moment back, I know I’ll have that moment again — it might not be against Caruso, but I know the moment will come again.”
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