Sources: Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving has torn ACL, out rest of season
Dallas Mavericks All-Star Kyrie Irving has suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his left knee, sources told ESPN.
Irving, 32, sustained the injury late in the first quarter of the Mavericks’ loss to the Sacramento Kings on Monday night.
The injury is a devastating blow to the Mavericks’ season, as Irving was the team’s best overall player and appeared in 50 of the team’s 62 games. Irving, who made his ninth NBA All-Star team in February, is the only NBA player this season averaging at least 20 points, 40% 3-point shooting and 90% from the free throw line. It’s the fifth season in his 14-year career in which he has reached or surpassed those averages — the second-most all time, trailing Golden State’s Stephen Curry, according to ESPN Research.
Prior to Monday’s game, Irving was averaging 39.3 minutes played over his past 10 games, a stretch that began right after the team dealt co-star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, the most minutes per game by any player in the NBA from Feb. 4 to March 2.
Irving averaged 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists this season. He has a $43 million player option for the 2025-26 season, the final year of a three-year, $126 million deal he signed in 2023.
Following the news of Irving’s season-ending injury, the Mavericks’ NBA title odds dropped from 66-1 to 200-1 at ESPN BET.
Irving’s diagnosis is the latest loss for a Mavs team already missing superstar Anthony Davis — who left his only game with the team on Feb. 8 because of an adductor strain after being acquired from the Lakers in the Doncic trade — as well as Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford and Caleb Martin.
Dallas also lost reserve guard Jaden Hardy to a right ankle sprain midway through the third quarter.
The Mavericks fell to 32-30 after Monday’s loss and are 3½ games ahead of the Phoenix Suns for the 10th seed in the Western Conference standings.
Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs will miss the remainder of the season after having arthroscopic surgery to remove a cartilage fragment in his left knee, the team said Tuesday.
The Magic said that the procedure involved a mosaicplasty to repair the trochlear joint surface and that Suggs is expected to make a full recovery. In mosaicplasty, a person’s own healthy cartilage and/or bone is moved to repair a damaged area.
Suggs left a Jan. 3 game with back spasms and since then has made only one appearance, in a Jan. 25 win over the Detroit Pistons. During his recent ramp-up to return to play, he experienced discomfort in his knee and had further testing.
Known for his defense, Suggs was averaging career highs of 16.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in his fourth season.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 51 points and the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Houston Rockets 137-128 on Monday night for their 50th win of the season.
Gilgeous-Alexander reached 50 points for the fourth time this season, all in the past seven weeks. No other player in the NBA has more than one, according to ESPN Research. The NBA’s scoring leader finished with at least 40 for the ninth time in 2024-25. He made 18 of 30 field goals, went 5-of-9 on 3-pointers and hit all 10 of his free throws.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who reached 50 points on a putback with just under three minutes left to give Oklahoma City a 132-120 advantage, had never scored 50 in a game in his career before this stretch. It’s the shortest span for a player to record his first four career 50-point games in NBA history, according to ESPN Research.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 51-point night against the Rockets marks the fourth time in the past seven weeks he has hit the 50-point mark, an NBA record for the shortest span to record four such games in a career.
“It becomes — you can say it’s not as exciting as the first one, but it’s more like getting lost in the process of just competing and playing the game you love,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “And then wherever that takes you, it takes you.”
Gilgeous-Alexander logged his 17th career game with 20 points in the paint and 10 made free throws, the most by any guard since 1997-98 — and a mark that surpassed LeBron James for the seventh most by any player over that span.
His scoring binges have helped Oklahoma City roll to a Western Conference-leading 50-11 record. The Thunder are 3-1 when he scores at least 50 points.
“Whether it’s 50, whether it’s 27, whether it’s 17 — as long as we win, I have fun with it,” he said. “It’s a fun night.”
Gilgeous-Alexander played 397 career games before reaching the 50-point mark. His first time hitting the milestone was a career-high 54-point outburst in a win over Utah on Jan. 22. He then scored 52 on Jan. 29 in a loss to Golden State and 50 in a home win over Phoenix on Feb. 5.
“I just think he’s got an unbelievable pace to him right now,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Where he’s finding his stuff, he’s attacking and really hitting the gas on some plays, and then there’s other plays where he’s just letting the defense tell him what to do and moving it to his teammates and it’s allowing for the rest of the team to play really well at the same time as him. So, he deserves a lot of credit.”
From the outset against the Rockets, it appeared this might be a special night when Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20 points in the first quarter. He said he took over because the team got off to a rough start. Even with his scoring spree, Houston led 31-30 at the end of the period.
“I tried to be a little bit more aggressive once we kind of got out to that [slow] start there, like kind of lift us a little bit,” he said. “I tried to be aggressive, be assertive.”
He had 28 points by halftime and 45 going into the fourth quarter. His six points in the final period were vital in helping the Thunder hang on and become the fastest in franchise history to reach the 50-win mark (61 games). The Thunder/SuperSonics franchise’s previous fastest mark was 64 games in the 1995-96 season.
“I just think you play the game to win,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Like, you don’t play the game to score a bunch of points. You don’t play the game to get a bunch of rebounds or assists or steals. … You don’t play for anything besides to win, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
ESPN
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| Player | Games |
|---|---|
| Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2025) | 19 |
| Dominique Wilkins (1986-87) | 44 |
| Wilt Chamberlain (1959-60) | 56 |
| Michael Jordan (1986-87) | 57 |
| — ESPN Research | |
Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving went down with a scary looking knee injury early in the team’s 122-98 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Monday night.
Update: Kyrie Irving reportedly out for season after suffering torn ACL
Irving was driving to the hoop late in the first quarter at the American Airlines Center when his left knee bent awkwardly as he attempted a layup. Irving crashed down to the court hard and immediately called for a trainer to come help him.
Irving remained in the game to shoot free throws after drawing the foul, but then was helped off the court without putting much weight on his leg as he went back to the locker room.
Kyrie Irving called for the trainer after suffering an apparent leg injury on this play.
Hope he’s alright 🙏pic.twitter.com/E9t4Vx18Sc
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 4, 2025
Kyrie Irving, unable to put any weight on his left leg, was about to be escorted to the locker room. He then remained in the game to shoot his free throws. He pointed to the sky before making both. Another brutal injury for the Mavs. pic.twitter.com/R4CesCdIZo
— Mike Curtis (@MikeACurtis2) March 4, 2025
The team quickly ruled him out with a left knee sprain. Further specifics are not yet known. He finished with seven points, one rebound and one assist in nine minutes on Monday night. Irving entered Monday’s contest averaging 25 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game this season.
“Just unlucky,” head coach Jason Kidd said, via The Associated Press. “I hope that he’s healthy, that it’s not serious.”
Irving’s injury is the second significant one the Mavericks have faced since the team opted to trade star Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers at the deadline last month. Star Anthony Davis, whom the Mavericks received in that deal, went down with an adductor injury in his debut with the team and has been sidelined ever since. The team also lost guard Jaden Hardy to an ankle injury in the second half on Monday night.
“It seems every time we get close to getting somebody back, someone goes down,” Kidd said, via The Associated Press. “Tonight, both Hardy and Kai go down. So, we’re running out of bodies here.”
The Kings led the entire way and cruised to the 24-point win, thanks to a dominant third quarter where they limited Dallas to just 16 points. Zach LaVine led the way with 22 points after shooting 8-of-12 from the field. DeMar DeRozan added 20 points, and Keegan Murray finished with 18 points. The Kings shot better than 47% from behind the arc, too.
Kai Jones led Dallas with 21 points and nine rebounds off the bench. Naji Marshall added 18 points, and both Spencer Dinwiddie and Max Christie finished with 10 points. No Mavericks starter hit double figures.
The Mavericks now hold a 32-30 record after Monday’s loss. They have dropped four of their last five and are fighting to hang on to the No. 10 spot in the Western Conference standings. With more injuries piling up, that playoff push that seemed very certain just a few months ago may be a tough thing to pull off.
The Mavericks quickly ruled out Kyrie Irving with a left knee sprain
The Luka Doncic trade just got worse for the Dallas Mavericks
The Luka Doncic trade just got worse for the Dallas Mavericks
After insulting their fans with the Luka Doncic trade in February, the Dallas Mavericks added injury Monday night.
Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving tore the ACL in his left knee Monday and is done for the season, reports ESPN.
Irving was injured during the first quarter of Dallas’s 122-98 loss to the Sacramento Kings. Reminiscent of when Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant tore his Achilles in 2013, Irving stayed in the game to shoot two free throws after sustaining the injury.
Irving, 32, was averaging 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game for the Mavericks this season. He was also carrying a heavy workload, averaging the most minutes in the NBA since mid-January.
Dallas’s fans have been beset with bad luck for the last month.
On Feb. 2, the team traded Doncic — a five-time All-NBA First Team selection who led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals in 2023 — to the Lakers.
Center Anthony Davis, who was acquired by Dallas in the Doncic trade, played in only one game for the team before suffering an adductor strain that has sidelined him since Feb. 8.
And on Monday, before Irving suffered his injury, the team announced an increase in prices for season-ticket holders.
Irving is in his third season with the Mavericks after being acquired via midseason trade in 2023. He is in the second year of a three-year, $120 million deal he signed with Dallas in the summer of 2023. Irving has a player option for next season.
After the loss to the Kings, the Mavericks are 32-30 and in 10th place in the Western Conference.
Rohan Nadkarni is a sports reporter for NBC News.
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