The Dallas Mavericks are screwed.
More so than they already were, at least.
After losing Chandler Parsons for the rest of the season and watching their playoff hopes ebb onto life support, the Mavericks will now be forced to push forward without Deron Williams, according to ESPN.com’s Tim MacMahon:
An MRI revealed that Mavs point guard Deron Williams has a strained left groin and abdominal muscle. There is no timetable for his return. “We’re going to try to get him better and go from there,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “The hope is it’s not serious.”
D-Will hasn’t been a star for the Mavericks, but he’s still an important part of what they do on the offensive end. His ability to drop in buckets off the catch allows him to play beside other point guards, and the backcourt pairing of he and Raymond Felton has, on many occasions, proved to be super dynamic.
Alas, now it’s Raymond Felton and J.J. Barea time—which, for the record, isn’t ideal.
The Mavericks are mathematically tied with the Houston Rockets for the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot, but Houston owns the tiebreaker, so it’s Dallas on the outside looking in at the moment. Basketball-Reference’s playoff probability model gives them a less than 35 percent chance of earning a postseason bid—odds that are difficult to turn around at full strength, let alone without two of the team’s most important players.
