HOUSTON -- Dallas Mavericks center James Donaldson suffered a serious knee injury in the first quarter of the team's game with the Houston Rockets Friday night, team officials said.
Preliminary tests indicate the 7-foot-2-inch Donaldson, sixth in the NBA with almost 11 rebounds per game, ruptured the patellar tendon of his right knee when he came down after taking a jump shot, Mavericks officials said.
Donaldson was taken off the floor on a stretcher and was to be flown back to Dallas Friday night and taken to Baylor Medical Center, the Mavericks said.
Officials said Donaldson would undergo further tests Saturday morning to determine the severity of the injury.
Donaldson, who once played in 586 consecutive games until a one-game suspension last April, was playing Friday in his third game since recovering from a strained groin muscle that kept him out of six games.
In his last six games before Friday, Donaldson averaged 17.3 points and 18.5 rebounds per game.
