
Luka Doncic won’t play for the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of their playoff series against Utah on Saturday because of the left calf strain the All-Star guard suffered in the regular-season finale.
Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said before the opener of the best-of-seven series that Doncic is day to day. The coach wasn’t sure about Doncic’s possible availability for Game 2 on Monday night.
“We’ll see, the first step is to see how he feels today,” Kidd said, who described Doncic as smiling and laughing the past few days. “He’s doing things he supposed to do to hopefully play in this series.”
Jalen Brunson, who averaged 16.3 points per game in the regular season, will be the starting point guard in Doncic’s place.
Kidd had said throughout the week that Doncic was in great spirits. But Doncic didn’t practice Thursday, and the team didn’t practice Friday.









