Kleber will miss series against OKC with shoulder injury

An MRI performed on Dallas Mavericks center/forward Maxi Kleber revealed that he has a right shoulder AC joint separation and will miss the Western Conference semifinal series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Mavs announced Sunday that Kleber will be re-evaluated in three weeks.

Kleber suffered the injury Friday with 11:15 remaining in the second quarter of the Mavs’ 114-101 close-out Game 6 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Kleber was dribbling down the court and did a near somersault when he collided with Clippers forward Amir Coffey.

Coffey was whistled for a foul on the play, and Kleber left the game for good after attempting two free throws.

Coach Jason Kidd sympathized with the injury to Kleber, but turned his focus to guard Tim Hardaway Jr., who missed the final four games of the series against the Clippers with a right ankle sprain but was back at practice on Sunday. Hardaway will be back on the court when Game 1 of the Mavs-OKC conference semifinals series starts Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. in Oklahoma.

“It’s next man up,” Kidd said after Sunday’s practice. “We would love to be healthy, but Maxi’s out, so there’s nothing we can do except it’s on to the next guy.”

Asked who is that next guy, Kidd said: “Well, we’ll get Timmy back, so we’ll get healthy there. So that’s how we look at it – that we lost Maxi, but we’ll get Timmy back.”

Kleber is a key defensive player for the Mavs, and his shooting has improved lately. In the Mavs’ huge 123-93 win in Los Angeles in Game 5 against the Clippers this past Wednesday, Kleber converted 5-of-7 baskets from three-point range and finished with 15 points.

Rookie center Dereck Lively II said the Mavs will rally around Kleber and hopes he can return to the court sooner than expected.

“Just seeing one of our family members go down that bad, we all get hit,” Lively said. “Just being able to know we’ve got to be able to pick him up.

“There’s a lot of people who’s looking at us, a lot of people questioning what we’re going to do. But Maxi knows that we’ve got to his back, and we know that he’s going to do whatever he can to get back.”

Kidd said the Mavs will turn to Markieff Morris, Dwight Powell and Derrick Jones Jr. as a fill-in for Kleber.

“Oklahoma is not a big team,” Kidd said. “We’ve got quite a few bigs that we can go to. We’re not short on bigs.”

X: @DwainPrice