DALLAS — When the Dallas Mavericks take on the Detroit Pistons in Friday's preseason finale, the team will do so without Luka Doncic in the lineup as he recovers from a mild calf strain. It remains to be seen if Jaden Hardy (ankle) or Josh Green (back) will play.
"Hardy is doubtful,' Mavs coach Jason Kidd said on Thursday. "I think you guys talked to Josh. He's doing better. He practiced today. And then Luka is out [against the Pistons]."
Green's back injury was caused by landing on his back during a fall in practice on Monday. When speaking to reporters on Thursday, he did not sound concerned about how it'll impact him ahead of the Mavs' regular-season opener against the San Antonio Spurs.
"It's doing good. It's feeling good," Green said of his back injury. "It was just a random fall. Just banged it up a little bit, but I'll be good."
After resuming practices in Dallas following a 12-day international trip with stops in Abu Dhabi and Madrid, the Mavs are optimistic about how their preparation will carry over into their matchup against the Pistons. With a slew of recent injuries, Dallas wants to get out of Friday's game without new injuries but also wants to emphasize a few focus areas: playing faster and rebounding execution.
"I think just the carryover from this week getting back to practice, the energy and execution has been high,' Kidd said. "The biggest thing is getting out of this last game healthy — our health's one of the issues we're having right now. If we can get out of this game healthy and address some of the things of trying to play faster and rebounding the ball, the biggest thing is our health."
While the Mavs will continue to be prevented from gaining live reps with Doncic, Irving, and the rest of the group around them in preseason play, the team finds value in finding ways to execute with Doncic sidelined.
"At the end of the day, it's next man up, "Green said. "We're not going to be one hundred percent healthy throughout the whole season. ... There are injuries that can happen and certain things where a guy's going to miss games, whether it's Luka now, but in three weeks, it could be Maxi [Kleber]. I think everyone's prepared, and it's kind of like the next-man approach, and it's also a good test for us to play without having a key guy like Luka."
The Mavs' tentative plan is to use the fourth quarter to provide playing time to players signed to two-way contracts and players who haven't received many minutes lately.
"If we can get out of this healthy, get minutes for those guys who are, hopefully, get to the third quarter again, and then turn over the fourth quarter to the two ways and the guys who aren't getting a lot of minutes."
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