Luka Dončić Out for Mavs-Warriors with Injury; Status for Rockets Game Reportedly TBD

Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Dončić was ruled out for Friday's game against the Golden State Warriors with right knee soreness, per NBA insider Marc Stein.

"The hope is that Dončić would be able return for Sunday's matinee against Houston," Stein wrote.

Just how important to Dallas is Dončić?

Well, not only is he the team's leading scorer (33.8 PPG), distributor (9.8 APG) and rebounder (9.2 RPG), he's also capable of completely taking over a game at a moment's notice, as he did when he put 73 points on the Atlanta Hawks in January.

He currently ranks first in the NBA in scoring. His head coach, Jason Kidd, believes he's the best player in Mavericks franchise history, as he said on 97.1 The Freak's The Downbeat in January (h/t ESPN's Tim MacMahon):

"He's better than Dirk [Nowitzki]. "He's in the atmosphere of [Michael Jordan], the best to ever do it, LeBron [James], Kobe [Bryant]. And so, just to appreciate what this young man's doing at the age of 24, [it] is something that Dallas has never seen. I've said this internally: He is better than Dirk. He does things that Dirk could never do, and now is the opportunity of getting the right people around him to ultimately win a championship."

That is the one major difference between Nowitzki and Dončić: The former has a title, the latter does not. If the 25-year-old Dončić continues to improve at his current rate, however—he's probably not even in his prime years yet—and the Mavs can put the right surrounding cast around him, those titles will be coming.

Still, he's a uniquely impossible player for the team to replace given that the offense runs through him and he's one of the most unstoppable offensive forces in the game. Kyrie Irving will need to pick up the slack in his absence, while Tim Hardaway Jr. or Jaden Hardy will need to play a bigger role on the wing.