The Dallas Mavericks announced on Friday that star forward Kristaps Porzingis has suffered a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee and will miss the remainder of the first round.
The Dallas Mavericks issued the following statement today regarding Kristaps Porzingis. pic.twitter.com/YFNGgWf8dH
— Mavs PR (@MavsPR) August 28, 2020
Porzingis suffered the injury in the team's Game 1 loss to the LA Clippers, the Mavericks announced, but he powered through the pain in a pair of impressive showings in Games 2 and 3. He put up 23 points and seven rebounds in a Game 2 win to even the series at 1-1, then had a massive double-double of 34 points and 13 rebounds in a Game 3 loss – all on a torn meniscus.
In his first postseason, Porzingis was averaging 23.7 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.0 blocks through three games.
This was Porzingis' first season back after taking the entire 2018-19 season off to rehab the torn left ACL he suffered back in 2017-18 while still with the New York Knicks. The Latvian forward looked like his former All-Star self, averaging 20.4 points and a career-high 9.5 rebounds to go along with 2.0 blocks over 57 regular season contests.
After the All-Star break, Porzingis posted averages of 26.0 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.4 blocks per game – an impressive showing for a player coming off of a major injury.
This injury comes as a huge blow to the Mavericks, who are currently down 3-2 in their first-round series with the Clippers. Does superstar Luka Doncic have what it takes to put together another unfathomable performance to force a Game 7?
Game 6 is set for Saturday, Aug. 29 at 3:30 p.m. ET.