{"id":217385,"date":"2025-08-07T09:30:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T09:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/217385\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T09:30:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T09:30:17","slug":"mavs-kyrie-irving-suffers-left-knee-sprain-shoots-free-throws-before-leaving-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/217385\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavs’ Kyrie Irving suffers left knee sprain, shoots free throws before leaving game"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS (AP) \u2014 Kyrie Irving suffered a left knee sprain Monday night and shot free throws<\/a> for the Mavericks \u2014 with tears rolling down his cheeks \u2014 before leaving the floor in obvious pain late in the first quarter of Dallas\u2019 122-98 loss<\/a> to the Sacramento Kings.<\/p>\n

Irving was fouled by DeMar DeRozan on a drive to the basket and his right foot landed on the foot of the Kings\u2019 Jonas Valanciunas. He lost his balance and then landed awkwardly on his left leg, and his knee appeared to hyperextend before he fell to the floor.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks provided no postgame updates on the nature of Irving\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust unlucky,\u201d coach Jason Kidd said. \u201cI hope that he\u2019s healthy, that it\u2019s not serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

After he was hurt, Irving grabbed his leg and remained on the floor for multiple minutes. Injured forward Anthony Davis was among those helping Irving to the locker room before Kidd spoke to Irving, who then returned to take two free throws. After converting both to pull Dallas within 23-18, Irving was helped into the tunnel, and the Mavs quickly ruled him out for the rest of the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just who, I mean, Kai\u2019s a tough guy,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cI asked him as they were taking him off the court, \u2018Are you good if you leave without shooting? You\u2019re ruled out.\u2019 So they took him to the free-throw line, and he shot the free throws and then we got him out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irving\u2019s decision to shoot free throws was reminiscent of the late Kobe Bryant, who made two game-tying foul shots for the Los Angeles Lakers after tearing his Achilles tendon late in the fourth quarter of a victory over Golden State on April 12, 2013.<\/p>\n

A nine-time All-Star, Irving came in averaging 25.0 points per game and has become Dallas\u2019 primary outside shooting threat following the trade of superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 1.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks were already playing without Davis \u2014 who left his only game for Dallas on Feb. 8 with a groin injury after being acquired for Doncic \u2014 as well as Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II and P.J. Washington Jr.<\/p>\n

Dallas also lost reserve guard Jaden Hardy in the third period to a right ankle sprain and finished with nine players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems every time we get close to getting somebody back, someone goes down,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cTonight, both Hardy and Kai go down. So, we\u2019re running out of bodies here.\u201d<\/p>\n

___ <\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS (AP) \u2014 Kyrie Irving suffered a left knee sprain Monday night and shot free throws for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[495,2889,7,579,686,149,4057,2619,3213,1264,7138,3716,6890,967,150,368,166,6,446,8283,477,66,582],"class_list":{"0":"post-217385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-athlete-injuries","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-ca-state-wire","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-dallas-mavericks","14":"tag-dallasmavericks","15":"tag-daniel-gafford","16":"tag-demar-derozan","17":"tag-dereck-lively-ii","18":"tag-jaden-hardy","19":"tag-jason-kidd","20":"tag-jonas-valanciunas","21":"tag-kyrie-irving","22":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","23":"tag-luka-doncic","24":"tag-mavericks","25":"tag-nba","26":"tag-nba-basketball","27":"tag-pj-washington","28":"tag-sacramento-kings","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-tx-state-wire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114986786698054112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}