Mavericks’ Kristaps Porzingis downgraded to out vs. Trail Blazers tonight

After teasing fans with a possible return against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night, it appears Kristaps Porzingis will not return against the Trail Blazers tonight either:

Porzingis was upgraded to questionable before the Tuesday night game against the Warriors, with the understanding he would likely play against the Kings the next night. When going through pregame warmups in Sacramento, Porzingis felt some pain return and so the decision was made to scratch him at the last minute.

The Mavericks have said in the recent past that Porzingis’ return from this knee injury has been complicated with some unrelated illness that presumably prevented him from rehabbing on the schedule we otherwise would have seen.

For a young player who has a long history of injury concerns, this is starting to become concerning for fans, who don’t have a lot of information as to what’s happening at this point. Simply put, we don’t know how serious this knee issue is because the team is being tight-lipped about it. Again.

While this may not be as bad as Chandler Parsons’ how-bad-is-the-knee saga from a few years ago, that situation left a bad taste in Mavs’ fans mouths, so this current 10-game absence isn’t helping their palates any. The Mavericks’ training staff is amongst the best in the league, so we can at least be assured that whatever timetable Porzingis is on is the best one for him and the team.

Let’s just hope it’s not a symptom of worse things to come.