The Bounce Newsletter 
| This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.
Steph Curry won at Madison Square Garden last night. Dating back to his time in college, Curry is now 13-1 at MSG. The one loss he has there? It was in 2013. He dropped 54 points in that game.
It Gets Worse
Kyrie out, adding to Dallas woe
If you were wondering whether things have gotten better for the Mavericks, they have not. Yesterday morning, we got the news that Monday’s scary injury for Kyrie Irving was in fact a torn ACL. He’s out for the season. That would normally be bad enough, but something Luka Dončić could overcome. Except I will remind you the Mavericks made the most inexplicable trade in NBA history by sending Dončić to the Lakers, sans trade demand.
The Mavs are going through it. The Mavs fan base is really going through it. Every bit of goodwill GM Nico Harrison built up is long gone. And it feels like when it rains, it pours asteroids.
Before we dive into how much this injury screws the Mavs, let’s go over what happened just over the last 10 weeks:
- Christmas: Luka injures his calf in the last game he’ll ever play for the Mavs.
- January 23: Dereck Lively II has a stress fracture in his foot.
- February 1: Luka is traded.
- February 4: Mavs trade Quentin Grimes to the Sixers for Caleb Martin.
- February 8: Anthony Davis debuts for Dallas with a monster game … before suffering an adductor injury.
- February 9: Mavs fans ejected for saying, “Fire Nico,” on the jumbotron.
- February 11: Daniel Gafford sprains his knee.
- February 25: Luka drops a triple-double in L.A.’s win over the Mavs.
- March 1: Grimes scores 44 points for the Sixers. Martin has not played for Dallas.
- March 3: The Mavs announce an 8.6 percent price increase for season ticket holders.
- March 3: Kyrie tears his ACL.
That is a brutal stretch. The Mavericks are currently 32-30 and in sole possession of the 10-spot in the West. But Kyrie’s injury goes well beyond just the final 20 games of the season. This has massive long-term ramifications. Let’s discuss.
Are the Mavericks stuck? Yes, they are. Kyrie has a $43.9 million player option for next season. I know what you’re thinking. “He just tore his ACL! He has to pick that up.” Wrong. The smartest thing Kyrie could do is opt out this summer. Why? The Mavericks have to pay him. They can’t replace him. They can’t replace the salary commitment of a $40 million-plus player. Irving can essentially force their hand, knowing Harrison is committed to him and they don’t have a second option to go get.
The good news: ACL surgery and rehab are about as cookie-cutter as it gets. Not that it isn’t difficult for the rehabbing player, but it’s not the long-term career setback it used to be. In a lot of cases, sports medicine people believe the ligament is even stronger than it was prior to tearing.
What’s the outlook for the rest of this season? Davis and Lively will hopefully be back fairly soon? Gafford is out for at least three more weeks. And the Mavs are battling Phoenix and even Portland (!) for the final spot in the West Play-In. The good news is the Mavs have a 3.5-game lead on the Suns. If Dallas beats Phoenix on Sunday, they’ll tie the season series and likely take the tiebreaker thanks to conference record. Dallas owns the tiebreaker already over Portland.
The Suns have the toughest remaining strength of schedule, and, as we talked about yesterday, are cooked. Portland has the third-toughest remaining schedule. Dallas is tied for the 18th-toughest remaining schedule. They should be fine, but they also need some healthy bodies soon.
What’s the funniest scenario for all of this? The Mavericks go on a spirited run, get up to the 7-8 matchup in the Play-In Tournament, and win the No. 7 seed. Then they face Luka and the Lakers in the first-round.
The Last 24
Knicks more dangerous than Nuggets?
📈 Power Rankings! Law Murray has the latest, with a surprise. Knicks are contenders. Nuggets aren’t?
🏀 Pelicans luck? Will Guillory asks a good question about the Pels. What if they don’t get Cooper Flagg?
🏀 Traveling! Steve Kerr is still on a crusade for more calls. “Everyone is seeing it.”
🎥 No Dunks. Watch the crew discuss some possible Kevin Durant trades this summer. Yes, Tas Melas is a toilet on a toilet.
📺 Don’t miss this game tonight. OKC Thunder at Memphis Grizzlies, 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN or Fubo (try it free).
Housekeeping
I remember when LeBron James became the all-time leader in regular-season scoring. He hit a fadeaway free throw-area jumper over Kenrich Williams as Thomas Bryant was calling for the ball under the hoop. The game stopped, we saw a fantastic celebration, and then the game resumed.
Last night, LeBron caught a hook pass cross-court from Luka and buried a spot-up 3-pointer from the left wing in the first quarter. It pushed him past 50,000 career points, if you combine the regular season and playoffs.
It’s a reminder of two things
- Goodness, LeBron is still so remarkable. He’s almost 6,000 combined points ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The only other player to crack 40,000 is Karl Malone, who trails James by almost 9,000.
- All NBA statistical records should include regular season and postseason, plus all ABA stats. If we’re going to celebrate the history of the game, let’s talk about the entire history.
Report Cards
After three quarters of the season
Each team has a maximum of 22 games left. That’s right; we’re entering the fourth quarter of the regular season! Perfect time to bust out the report cards again. First, here’s your Western Conference report card:
Some quick notes:
- The Lakers, Nuggets, Blazers and Warriors are the biggest climbers. The Lakers brought in Luka. The Warriors brought in Jimmy Butler. The Nuggets just got better on their own, and we’ve seen the Blazers do a 180.
- Dallas has fallen for obvious reasons (see above).
- The Spurs have downgraded because of the Victor Wembanyama situation.
- And Phoenix is just a mess (although they had a great comeback over the Clippers last night).
And now for the East!
- The Magic got healthier, and they fell off hard. I wonder if they can regain their early season success.
- Detroit has emerged as one of the best stories of the season.
- The 76ers have shut down Joel Embiid and officially failed the season.
- I’ll remind you the Hornets got swept by the Wizards this season. That’s an easy F.
- The Cavaliers and Celtics are still the class of the East.
📫 Love The Bounce? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.
(Top photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images )
