Kyrie Irving is back in the lineup for the Dallas Mavericks, but it sounds like he is far from 100 percent.
Shams Charania of The Athletic shared some concerning details on Friday about the right foot injury that Irving is managing. Charania says that Irving initially hurt his foot on March 8 and is battling plantar fasciitis in that foot.
As Kyrie Irving returns to the lineup for Dallas tonight vs. Charlotte, new details on the right foot injury that the eight-time NBA All-Star is playing through: pic.twitter.com/TkWnGyHStp
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 24, 2023
The eight-time All-Star Irving has missed four of six games that the Mavericks have played since March 8. In the two games that he was active for, Irving did not look to be all that affected by the injury (putting up 33.0 points in 36.0 minutes per contest on 51.1 percent shooting from the field).
Unfortunately for Irving, he did suffer a scare during one of those games against the Memphis Grizzlies when Memphis swingman Dillon Brooks inadvertently stepped on his troublesome right foot.
Dillon Brooks stepped on the back of Kyrie Irving's foot. pic.twitter.com/QU9hEeyPv1
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) March 21, 2023
Plantar fasciitis is a notoriously painful injury and one that has a tendency to linger. It is also especially worrying for a dribble-drive player like Irving who relies on shiftiness and burst to create space for jumpers as well as to get to the rim.
But Irving doesn’t have much choice right now other than to play through the injury since Dallas is in an unforgiving situation in the standings. They are 36-37 at the moment (one loss away from dropping out of the play-in tournament zone altogether) and recently suffered a controversial defeat.
