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 | |
Reports: Kyrie Irving (torn ACL) out for rest of season
Kyrie Irving suffered his injury in Monday’s 122-98 loss to the Kings on a drive to the basket in the first quarter.
From NBA.com News Services
After the shorthanded Mavericks lost Kyrie Irving to a left knee sprain, staying afloat in the West becomes a bigger challenge for Dallas.
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Dallas Mavericks star guard Kyrie Irving will miss the rest of the season after suffering a torn ACL in his left knee, per multiple reports.
Irving suffered his injury Monday night and shot free throws for the Mavericks — with tears rolling down his cheeks — before leaving the floor in obvious pain late in the first quarter of Dallas’ 122-98 loss to the Sacramento Kings.
The 32-year-old was fouled by DeMar DeRozan while driving to the basket and his right foot landed on the foot of the Kings’ Jonas Valanciunas. Irving lost his balance and then landed awkwardly on his left leg, and his knee appeared to hyperextend before he fell to the floor.
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.
“That’s just who, I mean, Kai’s a tough guy,” Kidd said. “I asked him as they were taking him off the court, ‘Are you good if you leave without shooting? You’re ruled out.’ So they took him to the free-throw line, and he shot the free throws and then we got him out.”
Irving is now out for the season, and figures to be in the final stages of recovery when teams report for training camp for the 2025-26 season. Irving has a $44 million player option for next season.
The loss dropped Dallas to 32-30, putting it 3 1/2 games ahead of the No. 11-seeded Phoenix Suns and four games ahead of the No. 12-seeded Portland Trail Blazers. The Mavs entered March as one of four Western Conference teams with more March and April games against the Eastern Conference (12) than they have against the West (10).
Irving’s 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.
A nine-time All-Star, Irving came in averaging 25 points per game and has become Dallas’ primary outside shooting threat following the trade of superstar Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 1.
Irving missed the end of the 2017-18 season after he had surgery on his left knee to remove two screws that were implanted after he suffered a patellar fracture during the 2015 NBA Finals. Irving developed an infection at the site of the screws, and had to have them removed.
This season, Irving appeared in 50 games (he played in 58 games last season for Dallas) and was rolling lately, scoring 30 points in five of his past seven games.
The Mavericks were already playing without Davis — who left his only game for Dallas on Feb. 8 with a groin injury after being acquired for Doncic — as well as Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II and P.J. Washington Jr.
Dallas also lost reserve guard Jaden Hardy in the third period to a right ankle sprain and finished with nine players. Kai Jones, signed by Dallas on Monday to a two-way contract in the wake of injuries to multiple big men, led the Mavericks with 21 points, a career high, and nine rebounds.
“It seems every time we get close to getting somebody back, someone goes down,” Kidd said. “Tonight, both Hardy and Kai go down. So, we’re running out of bodies here.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Anthony Davis has been out of the lineup since making his Dallas debut on Feb. 8 but is making ‘good progress’ in his recovery.
Gafford joins Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively II and Dwight Powell among the injured frontcourt players for Dallas.
Dallas’ second-year center has been out of the lineup since Jan. 14 and will miss significant time.
Anthony Davis is unable to participate in the NBA All-Star Game because of left abductor strain.
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Kyrie Irving Suffers Left Knee Injury
Hoops Rumors
[Update: Upon further evaluation, Irving’s knee injury has been diagnosed as a season-ending ACL tear.]
Mavericks star guard Kyrie Irving suffered a left knee sprain in Monday’s game against Sacramento, according to ESPN News Services.
The injury occurred during the first quarter. Irving drove between defenders DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas in the lane and fell to the court. He grabbed at his left knee and was down face-first for a few minutes.
DeRozan was called for a reach-in foul on the play and Irving managed to make two free throws before being helped to the locker room.
It’s another brutal blow for the Mavericks, who have been hit by a wave of injuries since the controversial trade of Luka Doncic. Anthony Davis suffered an adductor strain in his first game with Dallas and remains sidelined. Dereck Lively, Daniel Gafford and Caleb Martin are also on the mend.
Irving came into the contest averaging 25.0 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists in 49 games. He’s reached the 30-point mark in five games since the Doncic trade.
To make matters worse, Jaden Hardy exited the game during the second half with a right ankle sprain, Grant Afseth of the Dallas Hoops Journal tweets. The Mavs were blown out, 122-98.
If Irving needs to miss significant time, Spencer Dinwiddie will likely absorb the bulk of his minutes.
