Kyrie Irving struggles in Mavs return, bulging disc confirms

DALLAS – After struggling Tuesday night in his return from missing five games, Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving confirmed he was diagnosed with a bulging disc in his lower back and will have to continue dealing with the injury.

While ESPN had reported the diagnosis, the Mavs listed the injury as a lumbar sprain in Irving’s back.

“The last two weeks almost sucked,” Irving said after scoring 11 points on 4-of-18 shooting in a 118-99 loss to the Denver Nuggets. “I’ll be real with you. I haven’t really had back problems before. So when I got the MRI back and found out it was a bulging disc, I talked to a couple of experts, a couple of doctors, talked to some of my teammates, also talked to some of the guys on our coaching staff who have dealt with surgery or just dealt with the maintenance of it.

“I just have to be very smart about it, but I’m thankful that I got a chance to go out and get some minutes. Tonight really felt like I just jumped off the couch and decided to play an NBA -match tonight.”

Irving said he intends to play in the second game of the Mavs’ back-to-back Wednesday night on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Luka Doncic, Irving’s teammate, has not played since straining his left calf on Christmas. Doncic is scheduled to be re-evaluated in the last week of January.

Dallas lost another starter in the first quarter of Tuesday’s loss when center Dereck Lively II sprained his right ankle. He was ruled out for the rest of the match minutes later.

Irving said he had been able to ease the pain caused by the bulging disc — including discomfort in his hamstring and down his leg — with medication. He described the pain as being so excruciating that he could not meditate.

“It’s a bulging disc in the back, so you just have to do your best to deal with it,” Irving said. “It’s not to the point where it’s bad enough where I have to have surgery, which I thank God for, but I have the support of my doctor. A couple of other people in this locker room are dealing with the same thing. So just that be smart about it, that’s not being too careful.”