Luka Doncic strained his calf in the last game of the 2021-2022 regular season on April 10th, he returned to action on April 23rd after not playing for 12 days and missing 3 games in the first round

I bring this up in light of the Giannis injury. I remember the discourse around the Luka injury at the time being pretty close to how they’re talking about Giannis right now, that you don’t wanna mess around with calves and rest them which is true but that you could still expect them back sooner rather than later. Even the calf/leg movements itself by both players were pretty similar but I believe Luka’s looked worse.

For Luka it resulted in an almost 2 week absence which was actually the average for how long players were out with a calf strain in the 2022 season iirc. Despite Luka missing 3 games in the first round Dallas still went on to go to the WCF.

Here’s a video I watched of Luka’s injury to jog my memory a bit if you’re interested: https://youtu.be/tFxTjXACy-8?si=7wRNDDUK6A8MiGZ4

Now… luckily in Giannis’ case it happened a few games before the end of the season which gives him more time to rehab his injury. He’s also notoriously known for healing very quick from injury. If we assume that Giannis could be out of action for about 2 weeks (give or take) we could expect him back by either game 2 or game 3 of the playoffs.

Based on what teammates and reporters like Woj, Shams and especially Chris Haynes have said it seems like it isn’t that serious and there’s not a huge level of concern but the team wants to do everything they can to make sure he comes back at a 100%.

[Haynes on his podcast at 34:05 said the team does expect him back for the playoffs.](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6AgHqeLxZ8hNcLppNCvqAm?si=BBJjbEPhTUunNIMXa5J9bg&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A2PI6qxCJLMITxqI4Ax5ntl) Although, personally I do believe we should be good enough to at least be competitive and even possibly win a series without Giannis, let alone win a couple games. We have Damian freaking Lillard who’s made deep playoff runs by himself in addition to a healthy Khris Middleton. Similar to the Mavs situation in 2022 I believe we’ll have to win at least one or two games without Giannis to alleviate some of the pressure so he can comeback fully healthy.

by Fantasy_Ball