Luka: ‘I never played with a guy like Kyrie’

SACRAMENTO – Luka Dončić probably wasn’t going to play both ends of back-to-back games against the Sacramento Kings, so he said Friday morning that he likely would sit out the opener of the two-game set.

The Mavericks’ superstar point guard suffered a right heel contusion last week and will miss his fourth consecutive game.

“Probably not yet. Hopefully tomorrow I can be back,” Dončić said of his availability after the Mavericks’ shootaround at Golden 1 Center. “Still painful. Yesterday I did some pick-up. But it’s way better every day. Hopefully tomorrow.”

The injury happened Feb. 2 against New Orleans when Dončić fell backward awkwardly after he was met by the defense on a move to the basket. He said he felt a little lucky afterward.

“It was scary in my mind,” he said. “One second or two when I was in the air, it was a little scary. But it was nothing compared to what it could be.”

The pain has been subsiding daily, he said. But it never goes away as fast as an athlete hopes.

“Especially in the morning when you wake up before getting warmed up, walking in flip-flops, it’s obviously painful, but it’s getting better,” he said. “(I’m just getting) treatment, massages and ice, mostly. Time is the best treatment of course.”

Dončić said he played his first pick-up games Thursday and the recovery is a little different than ankle sprains, of which he’s had many.

Friday was his first interview with media members since the trade for Kyrie Irving (sending out Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith) and Dončić was asked what his impression of Irving is.

“NBA champion. Probably the best ballhandler ever in the game,” he said. “Amazing player and he’s going to be fun to play with.

“He’s a great guy you know. Obviously, you could see in the first game how amazing of a player he is. But first, I want to thank Spence and Doe. Those are my guys. We’ll obviously miss them here. But Kyrie’s Kyrie, man.”

Dončić said that he’s looking forward to getting on the court with Irving, and it will be the first time in his NBA career that he’s had a bona fide star-level player alongside him.

Things will be different, he said, and it will require him to adapt his game.

“Probably a little, for sure,” Dončić said. “I never played with a guy like Kyrie. So it’s obviously going to be a work in progress. But I think it’s going to be fine.

“We both can play on the ball. For me, I think it’s going to be a learning process, for sure. Outside of my first season, I didn’t play off the ball. But with a guy like him, it’s going to be really easy.”

But it will be a chance for him to perhaps be fresher come playoff time without having to constantly be the one bringing the ball up the floor and initiating the Mavericks’ offense.

“When you have really talented people, they’ll figure it out,” said general manager Nico Harrison. “It’s going to make Luka’s job easier. Luka’s had to work really hard, so Kyrie will take some of that load off of him so that when he plays now, it’s just a freer game for him.”

The Mavericks weren’t the only Western Conference team making a big deal, of course.

When Phoenix traded for Kevin Durant, also from the Brooklyn Nets, it sent more shock waves through the conference.

“Oh, I was surprised. Big move,” said Dončić, who added that the Durant addition makes the Suns “probably the favorite in the West, right?”

Not that he’s discounting his team’s chances.

“I believe in my team, that’s it,” he said. “Yeah, for sure (the Mavericks have a legitimate chance). That’s what I think every season. You’ve gotta believe.”

Twitter: @ESefko