You heard it here first: Mavs point guard Devin Harris' quad injury is worse -- waaaay worse -- than anybody from the Mavs is willing to admit in public. Waaaay worse. There will be an MRI on Monday, and maybe the private concerns will be quieted by good news. But brace yourself for the sort of injury-related monkey wrench that completely alters Dallas' playoff rotation plans.
Oh, and before you dimiss Harris as "just the backup PG'' (I actually heard somebody on the radio suggest Devin is equivalent to a "long-snapper'' in football), consider the way the Mavs rotation was to work.
Dirk is. ... well, everything. But after him on the totem pole come seven or eight similarly important people. Now, if a certain cog goes out, maybe a replacement cog doesn't represent too steep a drop. But the drop from Devin to Darrell Armstrong? It is significant.
And there goes a PG who can defend other PGs (something Jason Terry can't boast as a specialty). And there goes a drive-and-dish creator, a fearless finisher, a speedball energizer, a pick-and-roll attacker. ... Want to upgrade the running game? Pair Devin and Terry together, and dare an opponent like the Spurs to counter that quickness. A little patience, a little luck, some good health and a game or two of outplaying Tony Parker and Devin Harris becomes a star.
No, this would be a big loss. A very big loss.
If Harris is unavailable for any length of time for the postseason, Marquis Daniels could slide over, keeping DA from getting overexposed. 'Quis played only five minutes in Sunday's win over visiting Utah after tweaking his hammy -- but he was all smiles after the game, insisting he'd be fine. "Precautionary,'' he called it.
That same word -- "precautionary'' -- is being used by some to explain why Devin sat out Sunday, and why, in the second half, he disappeared from the bench. All this after an initial plan to follow up his cameo in Phoenix in the last game with 15 or so minutes here.
"You're concerned any time a guy is injured and you have a timetable and are not able to hit those kind of goals," coach Avery Johnson said, refusing to go so far as to call Devin's injury situation a "setback.''
It's a "concern.'' It's not a "setback.'' It's a "precaution.'' Play all the semantic games you want -- and, speaking of games, I say you best cross your fingers that Devin is able to play any first-round playoff games at all.