NBA

Nets’ Kirilenko injured again in win

DALLAS — Andrei Kirilenko sprained his left ankle in the second quarter of Sunday night’s 107-104 victory over the Mavericks, an injury which likely will hold him out for at least Monday’s game in New Orleans.

Kirilenko got tangled up and fell to the ground early in the quarter, coming up hobbling and exiting the game at the next dead ball. After a short stint on the bench, he went back to the locker room and underwent X-rays, which were negative.

“I was trying to steal the ball, jump for the ball, and I landed on somebody’s foot,” Kirilenko said. “I don’t even know who it was.”

It’s just the latest in a series of injuries that Kirilenko has been forced to deal with this season. After sitting out 26 of the first 30 games with back spasms that began during training camp, Kirilenko has since missed three games with a calf strain and two games with a sprained right ankle.

“What can I do? I can’t do anything.” Kirilenko said, shaking his head. “All I can do is try to get back healthy and work on it.”

Kirilenko didn’t rule himself out for Monday’s game, but didn’t sound optimistic about his chances, either.

“It feels a little swollen, a little numb because we got a lot of ice [on it],” he said. “So we’ll see. [Monday] is the critical day.”


Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was asked if Nets coach Jason Kidd, who split Rookie of the Year honors in Dallas in 1995 and in 2011 helped the team win its only championship, eventually will have his jersey retired, like it is in Brooklyn.

“I don’t know,” Cuban said before the game. “We’ll see. We’ll find out. I don’t pre-announce.”


Cuban also was asked about Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, and what he thought the impact on the league could be if Prokhorov was somehow caught up in the ongoing conflict over Crimea.

“I’ve thought about it, but I don’t know who he is friends with and who he’s not friends with and all that stuff, so I have no idea,” Cuban said.

When asked again if he thought it could impact the league if Prokhorov, who is set to pay roughly $190 million in combined payroll and luxury tax commitments, and his assets were impacted in some way, Cuban couldn’t help but get in a joke at the expense of his occasional sparring partner in the press.

“I mean, he’s tall but his jumper hasn’t been falling,” Cuban said, “so I don’t think it does [impact the NBA]. I’m not qualified to comment on that.”


Sunday marked Kidd’s 41st birthday, and he said he had a low-key celebration.

“Lots of rest,” he said with a smile, when asked what he’d received for his birthday. “I had a good dinner last night with family and friends, so it was good.”

Cuban said Kidd’s birthday made him think of his own 41st birthday, which came back in 1999.

“When guys hit that age, I always say, ‘I remember that age.’ It’s right when I bought the Mavs,” Cuban said, who indeed bought the Mavericks when he was 41 years old back in 2000.