The NBA Basketball season has passed the halfway point and the long grueling season that the players endure every year is starting to take a toll around the league. This is usually the point in the season where players are constantly getting banged up and this year is no different. Over the past few days there have been a ton of notable injuries and Monday night Orlando Magic’s Jameer Nelson became another victim of the growing trend around the league. Not to mention superstar and New Orleans Hornet’s guard Chris Paul also suffers a crucial injury. Take a look as we break down the recent outbreak of key injuries around the league and give up-dates of their status and which injuries will be most important to their teams.
On Monday night, Orlando Magic point guard Jameer Nelson stole the ball and was fouled and hit the floor and rolled over awkwardly. Nelson hopped up appearing to be in agonizing pain clutching his right shoulder. Latest reports have confirmed that Nelson has a torn right labrum in his shoulder that would definitely put a halt in immediate playing time. Nelson is unsure whether the injury will be season ending as he goes through the process of deciding to take season ending surgery now or try and wait to the end of the season. One thing is for sure that the Magic took a huge blow in amidst of this unfortunate incident. Nelson has been a key component to the Orlando scoring attack this season averaging 17 points per game. Without Nelson, the Magic will have a tough time being the same team considering how much of a threat Nelson posed leading the Magic down the court. Behind back Anthony Johnson the Magic do not have any point guards that will likely step in and be effective meaning Orlando will be facing some challenges in the near future. As for Nelson, he was having one of the best years of his career and now that likely has the possibility of being over. A torn right labrum means that there the shoulder joint becomes very unstable while depending on the case can be quite painful. The extinct of Nelson’s injury will likely be clearer in the coming days.
Another big time injury is that of New Orleans Hornets Chris Paul. Actually the injury is not that big at all as Paul has suffered a minor groin pull and will likely need a few days to get back to 100%. Paul is listed as day to day and his injury will likely be very insignificant in terms of how it affects the Hornets and last year’s MVP candidate to get back healthy. On Saturday night, the Lakers were hit by the injury plague sweeping the league. Center Andrew Bynum went down tearing an MCL which is a medial collateral ligament. The drastic injury is rather serious as Bynum will miss at least 8-12 weeks as the knee attempts to heal. However, MCL injuries are quite peculiar as on many occasions it takes the victim much longer to gain the confidence to go all out outside of the recovery time. The injury definitely was not fortunate for the Lakers, but it will likely not slow down one of the more popular teams in the world. Los Angeles has dealt with injury issues in the past and as long as they have Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol on the floor they are going to be tough to beat.
Other Injury Updates…
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Delonte West is still recovering from a broken wrist suffered back in mid January. West is schedule to have his cast removed later this week and will start getting practice time over the next few days. West is likely looking at another week or more to completely get the strength and confidence back into his wrist and will join the Cavs lineup when the time comes. As far as the Cavaliers they have been pretty good without him as they extended their incredible home record to 23 last night, but with West back in the line-up it definitely will not hurt.
Carlos Boozer has been out for some time now with a left knee injury. Boozer had surgery on the knee back in November and his missed 34 straight games. However, the rehabilitation process has been going well and Boozer should return to play in the next 3 weeks. The Jazz have been really hit hard by injuries this season after finishing with a 54-28 record last year that lead to a conference semi-finals meeting with the Lakers. Andrei Kirilenko suffered an ankle injury that required surgery a little more than a week ago and will miss another 3 weeks as expected. The Jazz have really had a disappointing year and if something big does not change they will likely have too many obstacles to overcome.
Tracy McGrady has been battling a sprained left ankle for the Houston Rockets, but is expected to return to play any day.
Chicago Bull’s Drew Gooden has missed 7 straight games battling a groin injury and is expected to miss a few more as he is still not completely healed.
