Will Kyrie Irving or Dereck Lively II play in Mavericks-Thunder?

The Dallas Mavericks host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night, with OKC entering the game leading the Western Conference with seven games and tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the best record in the NBA. This would be a tough matchup for a fully healthy Mavs team, much less one as stiff as they are.

Dallas will be without Luka Doncic, who is still recovering from a calf strain suffered on Christmas Day. The latest reports indicated that he is a few weeks away from returning, but that the Mavs feel confident that he should be back before the All-Star break in mid-February. Dante Exum is also still out as he recovers from preseason wrist surgery.

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The bigger questions were the availability of Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively II. Irving has battled back issues and has missed six of the last seven games. He returned to play against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday, then missed the following games against the Pelicans on Wednesday. The expectation is that he will play, but he is officially listed as questionable.

Lively has already been ruled out with a sprained ankle he suffered Tuesday against the Nuggets. Jason Kidd doesn’t think he’ll be out long, but he’ll be unavailable for this one.

OKC has not submitted their injury report for Friday’s game yet, as they are on the second night of a back-to-back. They will be without Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren for some time, and they were without Ajay Mitchell on Thursday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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