The San Antonio Spurs have been fortunate this season to not have any of their major players suffer an injury. The same cannot be said for the Dallas Mavericks. This season they have had to endure an injured Nowitzki and possibly lose Caron Butler for the rest of the season.
Although Nowitzki will be back with Dallas as soon as he recovers but how much does the possibility of losing Butler for the rest of the season hurt the Mavericks?
Check out how this injury shakes things up between the Spurs and Mavericks from our friend Jonathan Lee at Accuscore:
Dallas swingman Caron Butler underwent surgery to repair a torn tendon in his right knee and will miss the rest of the season. The Mavs appear to have the depth to cover the loss with more minutes for J.J. Barea, Shawn Marion, DeShawn Stevenson, and perhaps rookie Dominique Jones.
| Mavericks | WINS | DIVISION | PLAYOFFS | SEED |
| w/Butler | 56.7 | 34.8% | 99.5% | 2nd |
| Out for season | 55.2 | 24.0% | 100% | 2nd |
|
Impact
|
-1.5 | -10.8% | +0.5% | — |
The simulations show that without Butler, Dallas is just 1.5 wins worse for the season. They also show the playoff odds and seeding unaffected for the Mavs. The biggest difference is in the odds for the Southwest division. Dallas loses nearly 11 percentage points which is due to the fact that the Spurs are now more likely to win in head-to-head match-ups and already hold a 6 game lead.
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