Star Duo Hurting
Added on Mar 14, 2013 by Scott in
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Injuries have and always will be the great equalizer in sports. Losing a key player for a significant amount of time is all it takes to derail a team’s playoff and/or title aspirations. Last night’s slate of NBA action saw two of the game’s biggest stars exit with injuries that will keep them sidelined for an undetermined amount of time: Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant.
Melo exited in the third quarter of the Knicks loss to the Nuggets after experiencing tightness in his ailing right knee. It was his first trip to Denver since being traded two years ago. Needless to say, it was a less than spectacular return as he scored only nine points.
Anthony will have the knee drained and be shelved indefinitely. New York has dropped three of their last five without him at 100%. The upcoming schedule is favorable, but without Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire in the lineup, matchups against Portland, Orlando and Toronto become tougher to win.
Out west, Bryant went down after missing a potential game-tying shot late in the Lakers 96-92 defeat to the Hawks. He was diagnosed with a sprained left ankle that could cause him to miss at least one game. However, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him back on the court Friday to face the Pacers.
The sprain doesn’t appear to be severe and Bryant was more concerned about complaining to the ref for not calling a foul, and engaging in a war of tweets with Dahntay Jones, who was defending him on the play. There was contact between the two, but it was initiated by Bryant’s leg kick on the shot.
Both the Knicks and Lakers are fighting for playoff positioning and neither can afford their leading scorers to miss much time. New York has dropped to the third seed in the East with Brooklyn close behind. Los Angeles has moved into the eighth spot, ½ game ahead of Utah.
Source: ESPN.com
