The Dallas Mavericks are not anticipated to field Kyrie Irving in their game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Kyrie Irving will not be playing for the Memphis Grizzlies when they take on the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night. Irving suffered a right heel injury in a scary collision with teammate Dwight Powell, and he will not participate in this game. 

It was a scary moment for Powell when he fell into Irving’s foot, and it looks like he and the team are lucky that it’s just a contusion. However, Luka Doncic will bear an even greater responsibility because the Mavericks star won’t be playing against the Grizzlies. 

Naturally, the absence of many key players, most notably star point guard Ja Morant, means that the Grizzlies are also desperately short-staffed. The Grizzlies and Morant are keeping an eye on the remaining four games until he may return to action. 

Even without Irving, the Grizzlies will struggle mightily to win this game. Doncic has raised the bar for the Mavericks this season and improved their basketball performance. In the Western Conference, Dallas is now four games behind the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets in first place, separated by a percentage point. Dallas currently holds the advantage over those two teams for the third spot because they have one fewer loss than them.

Memphis, who is still five games off of a play-in spot despite having improved somewhat recently, has experienced something quite different.