The Mavericks may have to try to clinch the Western Conference finals without a key reserve.
Rookie center Dereck Lively II, who has emerged as a valuable contributor off the bench, took a knee to the neck area in the first half and didn’t return in Dallas’ 116-107 win over Minnesota.
With the Mavericks leading by 10 in the second quarter, Timberwolves guard Mike Conley drove into the paint and missed a floater that Lively attempted to block.
As Lively tumbled to the court, Karl-Anthony Towns — attempting to grab the rebound — was moving toward the basket.
Towns’ right knee collided with the back of Lively’s head, and the center remained on the court for a few minutes while Mavericks players and staff gathered around him — with Lively eventually getting helped toward the locker room.
Lively wasn’t in the NBA’s concussion protocol as of Sunday night, according to ESPN, but the outlet reported that he’d left the arena to receive a scan for the neck sprain.
“We’ll see how he feels tomorrow,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd told reporters postgame.
Lively, selected at No. 12 overall in the 2023 NBA Draft after a collegiate career at Duke, started 42 of the 55 games he appeared in during the regular season and has emerged as the primary backup for Daniel Gafford during the playoff run.
In the first round, he collected at least 10 points across three of the six games against the Clippers.
Then, in a Western Conference semifinal matchup with the Thunder, Lively reached that double-digit threshold three additional times — and turned two of those into double-doubles.
After his 12-point, 15-rebound outing in the Game 6 clincher against Oklahoma City, Lively paid tribute to his late mother, Kathy, who died in April.
“Love u momma, miss u momma, just sit back n watch,” Lively wrote in a post on his Instagram story.
He compiled 23 points and 20 rebounds during the opening pair of games in the conference final, and before exiting Sunday, Lively had scored six points, grabbed three rebounds and dished out two assists in nine minutes.
“We have to have next-man-up mentality,” Mavericks star Luka Doncic told reporters postgame, when asked about Lively’s potential absence for Game 4 impacting their defense. “Obviously, he’s an amazing player. He helped us so, so much in this playoffs and in the regular season, so obviously we’re gonna miss him if he can’t play. But we gotta have next-man-up mentality.”
With a win Tuesday in Dallas, the Mavericks would sweep the series and secure their first NBA Finals berth since 2011.
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