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USATSI

The hits keep coming for the Dallas Mavericks, who will now be without star point guard Kyrie Irving for the rest of the season. Irving suffered a torn ACL in Monday's game against the Sacramento Kings, officially wrapping up his 2024-25 campaign. He was averaging 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game.

Monday's loss puts the Mavericks in 10th in the Western Conference, 3.5 games ahead of the Phoenix Suns entering Tuesday's games. Even though Dallas is currently in the final spot to make the play-in tournament, the Mavericks are just 1.5 games back of the Golden State Warriors in the sixth and final automatic playoff spot. Despite Irving being done for the season, there's still some hope for the Mavericks to make the postseason.

Unfortunately for Dallas, Irving is just the latest domino to fall when it comes to injuries. The Mavericks are still without Dereck Lively and Daniel Gafford, while P.J. Washington and Jaden Hardy are considered day-to-day. Anthony Davis, the star Dallas got in return for dealing Luka Doncic at the trade deadline, is still out with a groin injury. Davis was dealing with an abdominal strain before the trade, and suffered the groin injury in his first game with the Mavericks. As Dallas tries to overcome injuries across the board, Doncic is dominating with the Lakers, who have won five in a row entering Tuesday's matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans.

According to Stephen Oh, SportsLine's principal data engineer, the Mavericks were projected to win 42.3 games with Irving and are now projected to win 41.1 wins. They had a 37.8% chance to make the playoffs with Irving in the lineup and now have a 24.4% chance to make the postseason. Dallas had a 0.52% chance to win the NBA title with Irving, according to Oh's projections. The Mavericks now have a 0.19% chance to lift the trophy. The big caveat here is Davis returning to the floor. The Mavericks were projected to win 82% of their remaining games in Oh's simulations, but that number is now down to 46% after Irving's injury. If Davis is shut down as well, the Mavericks might concede the final play-in spot for draft considerations like they did two seasons ago.

At DraftKings, the Mavericks are +500 to make the playoffs and -900 to miss them. Dallas is +8000 to win the NBA Finals. Odds on Western Conference teams making the Play-In Tournament are currently down in the wake of the Irving injury, but it's safe to say the Mavs' odds to make it have taken a severe blow.