Kristaps Porzingis exited Thursday night's 115-105 win over the Detroit Pistons because of soreness in his right knee.

Porzingis had missed the previous three games due to a sprained left ankle. 

"We'll hope for the best," Rick Carlisle said, noting that Porzingis seemed to be walking fine after the game. "We'll hope that it's not any kind of a serious issue and go from there."

Porzingis had surgery in October to address the lateral meniscus injury in his right knee that he suffered during the playoff

Bradley Beal and Luka Doncic have been named the NBA's Players of the Week for Week 18.

Beal averaged 31.3 points and 5.8 rebounds as the Washington Wizards went 4-0.

Doncic averaged 26.0 points, 10.0 assists and 9.0 rebounds as the Dallas Mavericks went 3-0.

Kristaps Porzingis will miss the Dallas Mavericks game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night due to an ankle sprain.

Rick Carlisle believes that the sprain is "not serious."

“We believe [the ankle sprain] is not serious, but the decision for him to sit tonight was not a close call," said Carlisle before the game. 

Porzingis suffered the injury on Thursday night against the Lakers. 

Kristaps Porzingis left the Dallas Mavericks' 115-110 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in the third quarter due to a sprained ankle and did not return.

Rick Carlisle said he had no updates on the severity of the sprain.

"Uncertain as to the severity. We're hoping it's not too severe. I don't think he's been ruled out for Saturday yet, but with ankles, a lot of it's about how the player's feeling the next morning.

"So, we'll see where he is tomorrow. He was in pretty good spirits after the game, and he is walking. He isn't in a [protective] boot or anything at this point," said Carlisle.

Thursday was only the fourth time this season that Porzingis played in back-to-back games. 

The Dallas Mavericks have fired Tony Ronzone after learning of new information pertaining to a sexual assault allegation.

Ronzone was the director of player personnel for the Mavericks since 2012. 

Sports Illustrated reported in July that a woman said Ronzone had forced himself on her in his Las Vegas hotel room during the NBA's annual summer league in July 2019. According to the report, the woman said Ronzone forcibly kissed her, groped her, pinned her on a bed and placed her hand on his crotch after he had invited her to his hotel to give her summer league tickets.

At the time, the Mavericks called the Sports Illustrated report a "one-sided, incomplete and sensational form of journalism, with its inaccuracies, mischaracterizations and omissions" in a statement shortly after it was published last summer.

The Mavericks have now reversed course but both Mark Cuban and Cynthia Marshall have declined to comment to the Dallas Morning News. 

Mark Cuban joined in with his franchise player, Luka Doncic, in criticizing the NBA's play-in tournament plan.

"I get why the NBA is doing it," Cuban said in a series of messages to ESPN. "But if we are going to be creative because of COVID, we should go straight up 1-20 and let the bottom 4 play in. This is the year particularly to do it since the 10 games cut [from the normal 82-game schedule] were in conference.

"The worst part of this approach is that it doubles the stress of the compressed schedule. Rather than playing for a playoff spot and being able to rest players as the standings become clearer, teams have to approach every game as a playoff game to either get into or stay in the top 6 since the consequences, as Luka said, are enormous. So players are playing more games and more minutes in fewer days."

Cuban voted for the play-in tournament for this season, which passed unanimously.

"In hindsight, this approach was an enormous mistake," Cuban told ESPN.

Luka Doncic said he doesn't "see the point" of the play-in game, adding that the concept undermines an entire season's work.

"I don't understand the idea of a play-in. You play 72 games to get into the playoffs, then maybe you lose two in a row and you're out of the playoffs. So I don't see the point of that," said Doncic.

The Mavs, who lost to the Sixers on Monday night, are currently in seventh place in the Western Conference. They would play the Grizzlies should the season end today.

Doncic added that his goal is to not have to deal with the play-in game in the first place.

"We're just trying to get to the sixth spot. I think that's our goal right now. Maybe even [higher] than the sixth spot."

While Luka Doncic is the clear franchise player of the Dallas Mavericks, Jalen Brunson has emerged in his third NBA season as perhaps their second most indispensable player. Brunson was the 33rd overall pick in 2018 out of Villanova and is averaging 13.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 25.5 minutes per game. 

"By the way, I heard that around the trade deadline the Mavericks got some calls about Jalen Brunson," said Brian Windhorst on his podcast. "And it basically like 'Luka's obviously untouchable and Jalen is pretty much untouchable. If you're going to offer LeBron, we'll listen.'

"He's being viewed as a foundational core piece going forward."

Kristaps Porzingis missed the Dallas Mavericks win against the Utah Jazz on Monday due to a sprained wrist.

Rick Carlisle said he had no timetable for Porzingis' return.

"We don't have a timetable. We hope it's not serious. It's something that he's been dealing with for a number of weeks, so we're going to hope for the best on that," said Carlisle.

The sprained wrist did not appear on official injury reports until Sunday.

Luka Doncic and Jrue Holiday have been named the NBA's Players of the Week for Week 15.

Doncic averaged 28.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.3 assists as the Dallas Mavericks went 4-0.

Holiday averaged 26.8 points and 8.5 assists as the Milwaukee Bucks went 3-1.