Shawn Marion close to return in the Dallas Mavericks lineup – NBA Update
The Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Championship for the first time in their franchise history back in 2011, when they defeated the Miami Heat in the Finals. A season later, they have lost nearly all of their championship team and
the two players from that roster who are left have been struggling with injuries.
While Dirk Nowitzki is out for nearly a month more owing to his admittedly slow rehabilitation from knee surgery, small forward Shawn Marion, who has missed the last five game for the Mavs with a sprained left medial collateral
ligament, is still not fit enough to make it into the playing five. The good news however is that he is close enough.
The 6 ft 7 in winger took part in Thursday’s practise, before the Mavericks left for Indiana and the decision of his participation will only come after his progress is evaluated in Friday’s shoot around.
"If it feels like I can fight through some stuff, I'm going to give it a shot," Marion said after practise on Thursday.
"I don't want to just jump out there and tweak it even more and have to sit out even longer," He added. "I want to gauge it. I can play through some pain. I just don't want to be having to favour it too much and be cautious of
that at the same time. They are telling me to gauge it on how I feel and my flexibility. I'm getting some of it back. It's not 100 percent, but I can fight through some of that."
The Mavs play the Indiana Pacers and the Cleveland Cavaliers on consecutive nights and it is a major possibility that Rick Carlisle will play him in only the second game. That can provide a big boost to the Mavs, who have been
struggling to clean the glass this season.
So far in this season, the Mavs are being outrebounded on average by nearly four per game, and against a red hot Anderson Varejao and good power forward in Tristan Thompson, the presence of Marion in the paint can make a significant
difference for Dallas.
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