Luka Doncic exits early against the Heat with a right ankle injury

About one minute and 40 seconds into the Mavericks-Heat game, Luka Doncic stepped on Kendrick Nunn’s foot and immediately went to the floor with a rolled ankle. On replay, it looks to be a particularly painful injury at minimum.

While behind the row of cameras, Doncic gripped high above his ankle, which could be an ominous sign of a high ankle sprain, though that’s pure speculation. Doncic hopped on one leg back to the locker room where he received x-rays which came back negative. The Mavericks, though, announced Doncic would not return to the game with a sprain. The severity is unknown at this time.

With two points and one rebound, Doncic’s streak of 20 consecutive games of 20 points, five rebounds and five assists comes to an end. The injury comes at a challenging time for Dallas, with games against the best of the Eastern conference in the coming days.

Update: 11:58 pm Per Espn’s Tim MacMahon, Maverick players are hopeful

Update: 12:10 pm Per Woj, it’s a moderate sprain.

Woj isn’t known for being well-sourced in Dallas, no one is. But with injuries there’s no reason to assume this information is incorrect.

What does ‘Moderate’ mean? That’s what we won’t find out until the days and weeks to come with Dončić’s rehab. Assume he’s out for the rest of 2019 for now and at least he wasn’t given the dreaded “high” ankle sprain designation which usually means a 6-8 week recovery.

Update: 12:00 pm Per Tim MacMahon will not travel with the team to Milwaukee but will stay behind in Dallas with head trainer Casey Smith to receive treatment. The team will not release an update until Wednesday night.

MacMahon also tweeted that Doncic might be able to return within a couple weeks, but it’s likely he misses the upcoming stretch against the top Eastern Conference teams, which is a huge blow to the Mavericks.

Dallas currently sits at 17-8, six games above the eight seed Phoenix Suns.