Mavericks lose game with more players injured than active

Dallas was blown out by 30 points, but that's to be expected when the Mavericks had nine of their players unavailable. The Mavericks played two-way signees Kessler Edwards and Brandon Williams 60 combined minutes Wednesday night, along with 25 minutes for second-year forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper.

The list of injured Mavericks for Wednesday was longer than the list of active players.

Kyrie Irving is out for the season with a torn ACL, and Dereck Lively II might be out for the year with a foot fracture. Anthony Davis suffered an adductor strain in his first game with the Mavs. Jaden Hardy sprained his ankle March 3, in the same game where Irving tore his ACL and Dante Exum suffered a foot contusion.

P.J. Washington aggravated an ankle issue March 1. Center Daniel Gafford sprained his knee Feb. 10, Caleb Martin hasn't played since Jan. 10 due to a hip strain and Kai Jones, signed March 3 to fill in for injured big men, immediately strained his quadriceps after one game as a Mav.

The Mavs were so short-handed that Klay Thompson played for over half the fourth quarter with the Mavericks trailing by more than 20 points, simply because Dallas didn't have enough players to let him rest. In the second quarter, Thompson and Dwight Powell were subbed out and returned to a bench completely empty of players.

Thompson's father Mychal Thompson, a Los Angeles Lakers broadcaster, said his son was "in purgatory" Thursday.

Thompson was supposed to be the missing piece for a Dallas team that went to the NBA Finals last season, but now the 35-year-old is the team's primary scorer. Instead of thinking about contending, the team is considering shutting down Davis, and perhaps others, for the rest of the season.

Of course, the Mavericks have so many injuries that they'll have to wait for more players to get healthy before they can think about intentionally benching anyone. They're still in 10th place, 2.5 games ahead of the Phoenix Suns, so there's a real possibility that the Mavericks will end up in the play-in tournament.

The problem with that? Two-way players aren't eligible. So if the season ended today, the Mavericks would have to play with a six-man roster. That might be worse than purgatory.