Mavericks vs Spurs Preview, Injury Update, and Game Thread: Sunday evening fun

OKC is missing many players, Dallas is missing Luka Doncic

The Dallas Mavericks (6-7) head north to face the Western Conference number one seed Oklahoma City Thunder (11-2). The Mavericks played less than 24 hours ago, beating the San Antonio Spurs. The Thunder are riding a three-game win streak despite an increasing list of injuries to key players. This stands to be a bit of a weird game, so let’s get right to the key things:

• WHO: Dallas Mavericks at Oklahoma City Thunder
• WHAT: Face off against the number one team in the West
• WHERE: American Airlines Center, Dallas Texas
• WHEN: 6:00 p.m. CST
• HOW: Channel 29, MavsTV, and also Playback with Kirk, Matthew, and David

The injury report headlines with Luka Doncic missing the game for Dallas. He’s been ruled out with a right knee contusion though it’s unclear if that’s the injury media have been alluding to in his questions for the past several games. Dante Exum remains out as well. The rest of the Mavericks have a clean bill of health.

The Thunder have a long injury report. Alex Caruso is out with a hip strain. Isaiah Hartenstein is out with a fracture in his left hand. Chet Holmgren took a nasty fall and broke part of his hip. Nikola Topic is out with knee surgery. Jaylin Williams strained his hamstring. Oklahoma City won’t be playing anyone listed taller than 6’6”!

This is an odd game. A win would be important for the psyche in Dallas, but the Thunder are down so many quality bodies it would be hard to take much away from it. A loss would be annoying, but without Doncic, it’s hard to gauge this team as it’s built around him. There’s a longer preview here if you missed it!

As you can tell below, you can join me and some other Mavs Moneyball guys in a room on Playback (embed below) during the game (though I may not be able to start it until halftime). Also consider joining Josh and I on Pod Maverick live after the game on YouTube, we should start around 10:15 pm. Thanks so much for spending time with us here at Mavs Moneyball. Let’s go Mavs!