Nowitzki out tonight and Garnett might be out as well

The San Antonio Spurs will take on the Dallas Mavericks tonight who will be without Dirk Nowitzki:

Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki will not play against the San Antonio Spurs, coach Rick Carlisle said after the morning shootaround.

It will be the second game Nowitzki missed after suffering a mild sprain to his right knee during Monday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Nowitzki said after that game that the knee had been bothering him for two weeks. (source espn.com)

Currently the Mavericks are 2.5 games behind the Spurs in the Southwest Division. Should the Spurs beat the Mavericks tonight, expect all Mavericks fans to point to the fact Nowitzki was out and the Spurs did not face a healthy Mavericks squad. When it comes to this rivalry, a win is a win.

Another huge game for the Spurs looming on the calendar is a showdown with the Eastern Conference leaders, Boston Celtics, who might be without their star Kevin Garnett when the Spurs visit Boston next week. Garnett injured his knee in last night’s game against the Detroit Pistons and here is an update from our good friends over at RedsArmy.com:

Danny Ainge, much like Celtics Nation this afternoon, is awaiting word on the MRI results for Kevin Garnett’s lower right leg injury.

But Ainge tells CSNNE.com that the MRI, more than anything else, was being performed as a precautionary measure, not a necessity.

The news keeps getting slightly better each time we get an update.  Now if only we can get the MRI results that say “mild strain…out for 2 weeks”, We can all just chill the hell out.

I really want KG to play in this game. These two teams are similar in every way is eerie. Not to mention some NBA fans yearn to see the Spurs and Celtics face off in the NBA Finals. This is another team which is a great measuring stick to see if the Spurs are really as good as their leading NBA record reflects especially if they beat the Celtics at full strength.

UPDATE:

Well it seems Garnett will be out against the Spurs next week in Boston:

Hey… remember in my last post when I asked for the MRI to say “mild strain…out for 2 weeks”.

Well… boom.

KG’s MRI came back negative. Has a muscle strain in the right calf area. Will likely be out two weeks. 

Well thank GOD for that one.  Now we can all do our little happy dance because after what we saw last night… this is the best case scenario!

(RedsArmy.com)