Mavericks: Wendell Carter Jr. apologizes after painful blow to Dereck Lively II’s face
The Magic big man clearly did not mean any harm for Dereck Lively II during the play that caused the Mavericks rookie to bleed.
A rousing third quarter effort from the Dallas Mavericks turned a potential blowout at the hands of the Orlando Magic into a dogfight. The Mavericks and Magic exchanged blows in the fourth quarter in a teeter-totter affair that ended in a 131-129 win for Dallas, but that exchange became literal deep in the final frame when Wendell Carter Jr. inadvertently hit Dereck Lively II in the face with a little over two minutes remaining in the game.
Immediately, Lively went down to the ground in pain, clearly reeling from the forearm he took from Carter. The Magic center was simply trying to contest the Mavericks big man’s shot attempt, but in trying to knock the ball loose from his grasp, he ended up missing the ball and hitting Lively straight on the nose, causing him to bleed — drawing a flagrant foul penalty one from the officials in the process.
Wendell Carter Jr. was immediately apologetic; his body language certainly gives the impression that he meant no harm for Dereck Lively II. But even as the Magic big man tried his best to apologize on the court, he also doubled down on social media, writing an apology on his official Twitter (X) account for the inadvertent harm he caused.
