Chris Kaman Left Mavs’ First Practice With Back Sprain

Shouldn’t be anything serious, but Mavs center Chris Kaman left the team’s first practice with a sprained lower back. Not a good start for a big man with a history of injuries, though this doesn’t appear to be anything major, at least not yet. Via the Dallas Morning News: “Center Chris Kaman on Saturday left the Mavericks’ first preseason practice with a sprained lower back. Normally, this wouldn’t be any more than a blip on the radar screen. But with Kaman’s injury history — he has missed 69 games over the last two seasons — it wasn’t the sort of news the Mavericks were hoping for on Day One of training camp. ‘It was a really good practice,’ coach Rick Carlisle said. ‘We had one casualty. Kaman went out with a sprained lower back. It’s not considered serious. So we’ll see how he’s doing for tonight and tomorrow and go from there. It’s not serious, but it was enough to keep him out of about half of what we did [in the morning].’ Kaman worked out mostly on the side in the evening practice and did not take part in scrimmages.”