How Spurs Are Impacted By Mavericks' Misfortunes, Kyrie Irving Injury

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jonah Kubicek | Last updated Mar 4, 2025 1:54 PM ET

On Monday, an already-horrid season got even worse for the Dallas Mavericks, as Kyrie Irving tore his ACL in a loss to the Sacramento Kings. After the ill-fated Luka Doncic trade, the Mavericks have slid down the standings to tenth place, and the injury news all but spells the end for their season.

Since the All-Star Brak, the San Antonio Spurs have only won two games, largely due to being without Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs have fallen to 13th place and are five and a half games behind the Mavs for the last Play-In spot, with both the Phoenix Suns an Portland Trail Blazers ahead of them.

In a normal season with a healthy Victor Wembanyama, Chris Paul, and De'Aaron Fox, the Spurs wouldn't have fallen this deep in the standings anyway, although this is not a normal season. Usually, fans could count on a late-season run, especially with injury woes to the teams above them, but the news from Dallas might be too little, too late for the Silver and Black to cobble together a meaningful stretch.

At this point, with their own draft pick and one owed to them from the Atlanta Hawks, the Spurs have been encouraged to tank away their season and re-tool through the draft, trades, and free agency with the hopes of making a very real run next season once their star is healthy.

The Spurs, who are in a similar boat to Dallas, don't have the firepower or star-studded cast to fix their season, and much like Dallas, will have to hope the ping-pong balls are friendly.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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