Yahoo if I Had Menisuc Tear Can I Walk Again
Oklahoma City Thunder bespeak guard Russell Westbrook will undergo surgery in the coming days to repair a torn meniscus in his correct knee, the team announced Fri. No timetable has notwithstanding been set up for his return to the court.
The Thunder say Westbrook suffered the tear during the 2nd quarter of Oklahoma City'south 105-102 win over the Houston Rockets in Game 2 of their first-round playoff serial. The team did not specify when exactly the tear occurred.
At the 5:34 mark of the quarter, Westbrook hit the deck after Rockets guard Patrick Beverley tried to steal the ball every bit Westbrook was calling a timeout, and Westbrook came up limping:
He did not leave the game after the play — in fact, he assisted on a Thabo Sefolosha three-arrow, picked Beverley's pocket and scored an end-to-end layup immediately after the timeout — and finished with 29 points, v rebounds, iv assists and four steals in the win. Westbrook had averaged 24 points, seven assists, 6.5 rebounds and three steals per game in the series, which the Thunder pb two-0.
Yahoo! Sports NBA columnist Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Westbrook is "irate" with Beverley over the play, and you tin certainly understand why — after all, he'due south the 1 who but learned he was injured and will miss time (presumably) as a result of the play, which would frustrate and infuriate just about anyone, especially a player as famously emotional and fiery as Westbrook.
That said, though, information technology requires a very, very long logic leap to propose that Beverley in whatsoever way had whatsoever intent to injure Westbrook or was looking to take a inexpensive shot at an All-Star; he was playing ambitious defense at a time when most guys don't play aggressive defense, and it resulted in a standoff, and that collision resulted in an injury. Information technology might accept been a "dumb" play, as Daily Thunder'southward Royce Young chosen it, simply it was a bang-bang accident. With a actually, actually unfortunate consequence.
As you've probable heard mentioned on at to the lowest degree one or two national broadcasts of Thunder games over the past couple of years, Westbrook has never missed a game — not in five NBA seasons (including four playoff runs), not in two years at UCLA, not even stretching back to high school. He'southward been a lineup constant virtually since he started playing basketball; now, for the kickoff time in as long as anyone can remember, he won't be in uniform when Game 3 tips off at Toyota Middle on Saturday night.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti said Friday afternoon that the team is "disappointed for Russell," according to Jeff Latzke of The Associated Press:
"We know what kind of competitor he is, how much he wants to be out there, but it'south a medical decision," Presti said in a news conference.
"Our team every bit a whole, we've got a resilient group of guys, a lot of character inside that locker room and a group that enjoys playing together and has been through some adversities over the last several years that they've been together. We'd expect them to adapt, come together and have different guys step in and play well collectively."
The injury doesn't necessarily mean Westbrook's done for the balance of the playoffs. Different tears of the medial collateral ligament (which often shelves players for somewhere between six and 12 weeks) or anterior cruciate ligament (which sidelines them for far longer than that), recoveries from meniscus tears can happen far more than quickly, with the almost recent example being Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace'south remarkable 12-day recovery from surgery to repair a meniscal tear.
Recovery times vary, of course, depending on the nature and severity of the tear, as well as the type of procedure undertaken to repair it. Al Harrington played through a torn meniscus last flavor (and wound upward missing nearly of this year after complications from arthroscopic knee joint surgery following the season); Eric Bledsoe missed four months (only merely most one calendar month of games) after his meniscus surgery last year; Chase Budinger missed 3 1/2 months after his meniscus surgery this year; and then on.
Speculating on what Westbrook'southward recovery might look like and when it might have identify would be extremely premature, peculiarly considering he hasn't fifty-fifty had the surgery however. Wojnarowski cites a source who says the tear is "considered to be minimal — mayhap ii percent of the meniscus, one source said," but what exactly that means remains unclear. There's a lot we don't know right now, and that will go on to be the case for a little while.
What we do know, though, is that for the get-go time in five years, the Thunder are virtually to head into a game without Russell Westbrook in the lineup. That's going to require some regrouping for an Oklahoma Metropolis team that has been able to count on Westbrook being on the floor for more than 70 per centum of its total minutes in each of the last iv years.
On one hand, the Thunder seem uniquely positioned to handle the loss of even a role player as important as Westbrook, thanks in function to the presence of capable, efficient secondary and tertiary scoring options like Serge Ibaka, Kevin Martin and Nick Collison, but due primarily to the leaps and bounds Kevin Durant has made in his all-around game this season — and especially as a facilitator, as evidenced past the difficult penetrate-and-dish kickout he made to Thabo Sefolosha for the game-sealing three-pointer in Game 2.
On the other, Durant gets more 3-signal looks (5.3 per 48 minutes with, 4.3 per-48 without), makes more than (2.2-per-48 compared to ane.half dozen-per-48) and hits at a higher per centum from deep (42.2 pct compared to 37.8 percent) when Westbrook's on the floor than when he's off, co-ordinate to NBA.com's stat tool, and has to do way more work on his own without Westbrook. Near 56 percent of Durant'south baskets came by manner of a direct assist with Westbrook on the court this year, and that number goes downwards to only nether 32 pct with Westbrook out, while his share of unassisted baskets (makes he creates himself in isolation and off the dribble) skyrockets from 44.i percent when Westbrook plays to 68.2 per centum when Russell sits.
Having to create more than two-thirds of your shots by your lonesome seems like an awful heavy burden for Durant to accept to behave over the grade of a long playoff run against tough defenses. It will be incumbent, then, on Thunder coach Scott Brooks to figure out how to divide up Westbrook'south ball-handling, playmaking and scoring responsibilities; headlined, 1 suspects, past many more minutes going to reserve indicate guards Reggie Jackson and Derek Fisher — without hugely overburdening Durant.
"I'one thousand confident in the guys we have," Presti told reporters Friday afternoon, according to Daily Thunder's Royce Young. "I'm confident in our coaching staff."
Confident or not, the loss of Westbrook for any meaning period of time represents a major blow to the title chances of an Oklahoma Urban center team that won a Thunder-franchise-best sixty games this season (the former Seattle SuperSonics won more iii times) to earn dwelling-court advantage throughout the Western Briefing playoffs and has its sights set on a second straight trip to the NBA finals. Fifty-fifty if Westbrook is able to return chop-chop, information technology's uncertain how close he'd actually be to the fearless, explosive All-NBA-caliber scorer and facilitator that nosotros've seen over the past v years, particularly coming back from the first meaning injury of his basketball life. It's tough to quantify and project that kind of stuff; again, there'south just so much we don't know.
Nosotros'll acquire much more about Westbrook's prognosis, the Thunder'southward chances and how wide this opens the Western Briefing door to other contenders — most notably the Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies, because the winner of their series will confront OKC in Circular ii — in the days ahead. Right now, though, this much is sure: Every bit long as Westbrook's unable to lace them up, we've all lost the take chances to sentry something pretty awesome and someone pretty breathtaking. Get well soon, Russ.
If the first clip above isn't working for you, feel complimentary to check out the video elsewhere, thanks to SI.com's Ben Golliver.
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Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/russell-westbrook-tears-meniscus-knee-surgery-no-return-165607637.html?a20=1
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