Latvian basketball player Porziņģis returns with Mavericks loss

Take note – story published 4 years ago

Latvian basketball player Kristaps Porziņģis returns for his first game of 2020 after spending 10 games on the bench due to injury, but his shots are imprecise and he only scores 10 points, while his team, the Dallas Mavericks, suffer a close 107:110 loss against the Los Angeles Clippers, according to the NBA on January 22.

Porziņģis was one of the starters and spent 27:03 minutes on the court. He scored ten points, got nine rebounds, assisted on score, had one block and one steal. The Latvian wasn’t as precise as usual, sinking only one out of eight three pointers and three out of nine two pointers. Porziņģis made his only free throw of the game.

Leading scorer for the Mavericks Luka Dončić gained 36 points, while Kawhi Leonard scored the same amount for the opposing team. Dallas center Dwight Powell suffered a non-contact injury to his Achilles during the game, possibly benching him for the remainder of the season.

The Mavericks are currently in 6th place in the NBA Western Conference with 27 wins out of 43 games. The next game will be an away game on Thursday, January 23 against the Portland Trail Blazers.

As previously reported in 2019, the Dallas Mavericks officially re-signed Kristaps Porziņģis, the 7-foot-3 All-Star selection from Latvia who still hadn't played a game for them since being acquired in a big deal before the trade deadline last season, ESPN reported, according to the LETA newswire.

Porzingis and the Mavericks agreed earlier in the month on a USD 158 million, five-year maximum contract -- the last season being a player option. That paired the Latvian standout with fellow young Euro star Luka Dončic, the 20-year-old from Slovenia who was the NBA's Rookie of the Year in the previous season when he averaged 21.2 points.

Porzingis, who turned 24 on August 2, sat out all of the previous season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on February 6, 2018, in what turned out to be his last game for the New York Knicks. The injury happened not long after Porzingis was named an All-Star.
 

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