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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah knows what Dallas is feeling right now.
On Sunday, Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic strained his calf in the third quarter of a game that ended up being meaningless. And just like that, the status of the biggest star of the Jazz-Mavericks series was in question.
There's a lot of variability in calf strains, which doesn't help answer when Doncic will return. As chronicled by injury analyst Jeff Stotts, a calf strain has kept a player out as little as three days this season; more commonly, though, it's an injury that takes two to three weeks to heal.
Two players in the series actually suffered calf strains earlier this season: Mavs guard Frank Ntilikina missed four games (12 days) in late November, and Jazz center Rudy Gobert missed nine games (21 days) just before the All-Star break.
''Hopefully it's not too serious,'' said Dallas coach Jason Kidd, who said he hadn't met with Doncic or the head of the club's medical staff before he spoke to reporters after the game.
ESPN reported that there was initial optimism that Doncic hasn't suffered a significant injury. That sounds like good news, but will he ready to play Game 1 on Saturday at 11 a.m. MDT? Will he even play in the series? Those are the questions Dallas is faced with ahead of the first-round playoff series.
It's those exact types of doubts the Jazz went a full season trying to avoid; Utah knows a thing or two about injury luck in the playoffs.
Two years ago, Bojan Bogdanovic missed the postseason after undergoing surgery; last year, Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley were both significantly hampered as the Jazz were bounced in the second round. This time around, however, Utah's injury report is mostly clean.
Backup point guard Trent Forrest is dealing with a mid-foot sprain that is likely to keep him out at least the early part of the first round, and Udoka Azubuike had season-ending surgery, but that's it.
"I feel good about where we're at from a health standpoint," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "Trent's loss is a bigger loss than people realize, but hopefully at some point — and we're doing what we want to be doing — maybe we get him back."
While Snyder was careful not to discount the regular season, he said the goal from the very beginning was for his team to be healthy — and, hopefully, stay healthy — for the playoffs.
"We haven't been healthy; we're healthy now," he said. "And we haven't had that in a couple of years. Two years ago we were playing without Bojan. Last year, Donovan wasn't 100% and then we lost Mike for a good stretch. So some of that stuff you can't control, but I feel good where we are right now. We have a group — other than Trent — that is healthy going into playoffs.
"Hopefully that stays consistent, but I know we've got a team that's been looking forward to this."
The last regular season contest against Dallas, which was billed as a battle for home-court advantage, Gobert was a late scratch with a leg contusion. That raised some eyebrows — he missed a game of that magnitude due to a bruise? But that was just how careful the Jazz chose to be over the course of the regular season.
Conley regularly rested on back-to-back games and Utah players weren't pushed back before they were absolutely ready — seeding wasn't important enough for Utah to risk further injury anyone.
"That's why we put so much emphasis on taking care of ourselves," Gobert said.
Yes, the Jazz have pondered what could have happened the last couple playoffs if they had stayed healthy: Would they have beat Denver with Bogdanovic two seasons ago? Would they have advanced past the LA Clippers if Mitchell and Conley weren't limping to the finish?
"With how many different opportunities we could have had and what could have happened had we been healthy, we're doing less thinking about that and more thinking about how we got our guys, we got our people, and let's figure out how to beat Dallas," Conley said. "Let's figure out how to win Game 1."
Conley said he's feeling "strong" and he's proud of the work he and the team have done from a health standpoint to be ready for the playoffs. Now, he's looking forward to all the minute restrictions he's played with this season being fully lifted.
"I think for us to go into the playoff series knowing that we have most of our guys healthy, especially guys who have been in the rotation consistently, that's a win for us," Conley said. "And we understand that."
And now more than ever, so do the Mavericks.
