SAN FRANCISCO – Josh Green could only come up with one explanation for why the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow keeps getting strained.
“I guess I put my elbows in weird positions and weird stuff happens to them,” he said.
That’s probably not the way the medical experts would describe it, but for the laymen among us, that summed up the Maverick guard’s situation pretty well.
Green missed 12 games with his elbow injury, returning on Wednesday against Cleveland. to them.
Saturday was his third game back and he looked more comfortable than he did in his first two games back. He canned a three-pointer shortly after entering the game and his 10 first-half points were a big reason why the Mavericks were up by as much as 16 points in the first half.
Green finished with 18 points off the bench in 25 minutes. He hit six of eight shots and three of four from beyond the arc.
“I knew it was going to take some games to get into a rhythm,” he said.
He also knew not to put too much pressure on himself, but also to stay aggressive when he got into the game against the Warriors.
“I just try to be the best teammate I can be and part of that is also I need to understand I can’t pass up open shots,” Green said. “So I just came out aggressive. It (the injury) was unfortunate, I finally felt I was getting into a rhythm right before the injury. So I was kind of devastated about that.”
He went into detail about what happened with the elbow, which he injured on a dunk against Memphis on Dec. 1.
“It’s definitely an annoyance,” he said. “But over time, I’ll start feeling better. The good part is the healing process is done. When I did it in the Memphis game, it was hard to play. I couldn’t shoot in the second half. It hurt a lot.
“I did it last year, which kind of sucked. But during the Memphis game, I kind of knew what happened, knew what it was.”
Coach Jason Kidd said the Mavericks saw signs of Green getting back into form at Minnesota on Thursday and at an informal workout on Friday.
“The last game, I thought he was positive,” Kidd said pregame. “Being off for that much time, he’s only had two games. This will be his third. I think it was a positive experience for him in Minnesota.
“When you’ve been out for some time, sometimes, it just takes a little time to get a rhythm.”
Green said it’s a challenge to get back into form after missing nearly a month – and not being able to do much in terms of basketball while being sidelined.
“I’m not expecting myself to go out there – I’ve barely shot the ball the last three or four weeks,” Green said. “That will come back. But it is what it is. I’m not too worried about it. It’s an annoying injury. It’s pretty important, the shooting arm. But it’s fine.”
Another reason he hasn’t been too upset with giving himself time to heal is that the Mavericks have been able to tread water without him and Kyrie Irving for most of December.
“I’m so happy for guys like Dante (Exum) and D-Jones (Derrick Jones Jr.),” Green said. “They’ve done an amazing job. It’s been good for everybody and great for our team. But at the same time, I need to continue to progress and get better every game.
“It’s still early. I’m ready to go. It’s just a matter of time. It’s about me finding my rhythm. I finally felt like I was finding some rhythm, but it’s one of those things.”
Kyrie nearing return: The Mavericks have been without Kyrie Irving since his heel injury on Dec. 8 at Portland.
That time on the shelf likely will end soon.
Kidd said before Saturday’s game that Irving put in a solid workout on Friday and is moving closer to getting back into action. Saturday was the 12th consecutive game the 6-2 guard has missed.
“He worked out yesterday, had a good workout,” Kidd said. “Hopefully he can play on this road trip. If not, the early part of the home stand.”
The Mavericks play at Utah on New Year’s Day and then start a seven-game home stand with games against Portland on Wednesday and Friday.
X: @ESefko
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