Mavs head to Washington holding breath on Porzingis

The Dallas Mavericks were already without several key players because of injury. Now, they may be adding Kristaps Porzingis to the list of unavailable players on Friday night. Porzingis is questionable for the Mavericks game against the Washington Wizards in the nation's capital after sustaining a broken nose in Dallas' loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday.

The Wizards, meanwhile, will also be sporting a different-looking lineup, but that's because of a pair of deals the club made before the Thursday trade deadline. Washington was part of a reported three-team trade with the Los Angeles Clippers and New York Knicks that sent Marcus Morris of New York and Isaiah Thomas from the Wizards to the Clippers. In return, Washington gets guard Jerome Robinson from Los Angeles.

Robinson averaged 2.9 points per game for the Clippers this season and will fill the shooting guard spot created by Washington's other trade, which sent Jordan McRae to the Denver Nuggets for guard Shabazz Napier. McRae averaged 12.8 points in 29 games for Washington this season. Napier will be on the move for the second time since Tuesday, when he went to Denver from Minnesota as part of a four-team trade on Tuesday. He averaged 9.6 points and 5.2 assists (both would be career highs) in 36 games for Minnesota before being traded.

Porzingis took an elbow to the face in the third quarter Wednesday, knocking him out of the game as his bloodied face was tended to. He returned to the game, however, finishing with 32 points and 12 rebounds. The Mavericks, already without Luka Doncic (sprained right ankle), J.J. Barea (sprained left ankle) and Seth Curry (left knee tightness), went from trailing by 10 to trailing 95-74 before Porzingis returned. He revealed after the game that his nose was broken.

He still nearly became the first player in Mavericks history to record three straight games of at least 35 points and 10 rebounds. "I mean our energy wasn't great today and they kind of started the second half a little better than us," Porzingis told reporters. "I got hit in the nose, walked out, came back and we were down pretty big, and that was it."

Jalen Brunson finished with 20 points and six assists, and Tim Hardaway had 14 points and six rebounds for Dallas. "Ugly game for us," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "We're going to have to do a lot better. I'm going to have to do a better job of getting these guys ready."

The Wizards have had their own share of injuries this season but continue to get healthy as forward Rui Hachimura and center Moritz Wagner returned Monday against the Golden State Warriors. In his first game back after missing the last 23 games with a groin injury, Hachimura finished with 11 points and eight rebounds in the 125-117 loss. "(Hachimura's play) was a bright spot," Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. "Brad obviously had a great game, but Rui came in (his) first game in a couple of months, I thought he played like you're supposed to play."

Wagner, who missed 25 games with a sprained left ankle, played 12 minutes, scoring eight points. Bradley Beal scored 43 points -- 15 in the fourth quarter -- and is averaging 38.8 points in his last seven games. The Warriors went on a 21-4 third-quarter run to take control of the game and be able to withstand Beal's late surge.

"We didn't come out to play with the right mindset," Brooks said. "(Golden State) plays hard. They're a lot like us. They played hard but tonight we didn't. We didn't have that. We didn't have the right mindset." 

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