DALLAS — Luka Doncic is back on the road for the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of their playoff series against the Utah Jazz, although coach Jason Kidd said the young superstar guard is continuing to make progress in his recovery from a strained left calf.
Monday’s second game comes eight days after Doncic was injured in the regular-season final.
The Mavericks lost Game 1 to the Jazz 99-93 on Saturday. Game 3 of the best-of-seven series takes place in Utah on Thursday night.
Doncic has resumed individual shooting, even delivering a half-field shot during the team’s walk-through on Monday morning.
Kidd didn’t elaborate on Doncic’s progress ahead of the game.
The coach said after the team’s morning walk-through that the 23-year-old All-Star was “definitely going in the right direction” and doing more every day.
“Like I’ve said from the start, he’s in a great place mentally. He was happy, he was joking,” Kidd said. “Sometimes when you get hurt you can get grumpy. When you’re older and get hurt you get grumpy. But he’s young. He’s doing everything he can do so far and hopefully he’ll be able to play soon, but when .” he can’t play, we have to play without him.”
Dallas is 8-10 without Doncic this season, including the Game 1 loss to the Jazz.