Dante Exum suffered a broken bone in his left hand against the Houston Rockets Friday night, deepening the woes of the Dallas Mavericks.
The point guard is out indefinitely as of now. Exum only played 18 games this season and is in the final year of his contract.
He already missed the bulk of this season due to recovery from surgery for a wrist injury at training camp.
A season that was supposed to be a bigger bet on winning now by trading Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis has gone up in smoke. Kyrie Irving is out for the season, as is Olivier-Maxence Prosper. Davis may be done, too. There is no definitive return date for either of Daniel Gafford or Dereck Lively II.
Kai Jones was signed to help the depleted front court and even he’s out injured now.
Mavs In Strange Position As Playoffs Near
Normally, all these injuries would dictate playing for ping pong balls. With the Mavs having played well for much of the season and having even been in position for home court advantage for the first round at one point, that isn’t the case.
With 14 games remaining in the season, Dallas is in the 10th and final Play-In Tournament spot. They are two games ahead of the Phoenix Suns, a team that can’t seem to get it together.
Dallas has lost seven of its last eight games. There are seven games remaining against plus-.500 teams and another seven against sub-.500 teams. Four of those sub-.500 teams are outright tanking teams.
If they can win those four winnable games and sneak a couple somewhere else, is that enough to make the Play-In Tournament? 40 wins may be a task too tall for the Suns at this stage. It would require a team 30-36 at this stage to win 10 of its final 16 games.
Who Can Carry Mavs Through Injury Rubble?
Naji Marshall has been tremendous in the wake of all the injuries. Brandon Williams has been a pleasant surprise at the guard position, outperforming Spencer Dinwiddie thus far.
Through seven games in March, Marshall is averaging 21.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.0 steals. He’s also shooting over 50 percent from the field.
Williams has played four games in March, averaging 19.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 6.3 assists.