The San Antonio Spurs misplaced star Victor Wembanyama early Tuesday night time after he took a tough, awkward fall and smacked his face straight onto the ground in Game 2 of their 106-103 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Wembanyama was shortly positioned into concussion protocol and dominated out for the remainder of the sport. He was identified with a concussion, head coach Mitch Johnson confirmed after the competition, and he’s set to endure additional testing on Wednesday.
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Further specifics, together with how lengthy he may be sidelined, are usually not but recognized. League guidelines stipulate {that a} participant can’t return for not less than 48 hours after being identified with a concussion. He could have to full the required return-to-participation course of and be cleared by a group physician, too. That timeline undoubtedly places the following a number of video games doubtful.
“He has a concussion, he’s in the protocol and we’ll obviously take the proper and appropriate steps,” Johnson mentioned merely, via The Athletic’s Jared Weiss.
Wembanyama goes down early with concussion
Wembanyama misplaced his stability within the lane as he tried to make a transfer previous Jrue Holiday halfway by the second quarter Tuesday. But as he rotated to attempt to get to the rim, Wembanyama collided with Holiday and misplaced his stability.
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That despatched him crashing face-first to the ground on the Frost Bank Center. Wembanyama’s chin collided with the court, and he remained down, clearly shaken up for fairly a while underneath the rim.
After getting to a seated place, Wembanyama finally jumped up and ran again to the locker room with 8:57 remaining within the second quarter.
Wembanyama had 5 factors and 4 rebounds on the time. The MVP candidate was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year via a unanimous vote on Monday and obtained his trophy forward of Tuesday’s contest in San Antonio.
The Spurs rolled to a 1-0 lead within the sequence on Sunday as Wembanyama dropped 35 points in his postseason debut.
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Trail Blazers rally with out Wembanyama out there
While the 2 groups entered the locker room tied up at halftime, the Spurs erupted to begin the fourth quarter. They opened the ultimate interval on a 13-0 tear to lastly get some separation.
But issues flipped within the second half of the quarter, and the Spurs fully collapsed.
The Trail Blazers, with out Wembanyama clogging issues up for them inside, lastly rallied again and took the lead once more after Holiday cleaned up a missed Robert Williams bucket with about two minutes left on the clock. That capped a 12-2 run of their very own.
Eventually, it was Williams who sealed the take care of an and-one dunk proper by Julian Champagnie with simply 12 seconds left. While he missed the free throw, it gave the Blazers sufficient area out in entrance and allowed them to dangle on to seize the three-point win.
Devin Vassell had a glance to ship the sport to extra time within the ultimate seconds, however he was simply off the mark. The Trail Blazers closed the sport on a 27-10 run to seize the win.
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Stephon Castle led the Spurs with 18 factors and eight rebounds, and Vassell added 16 factors and 12 rebounds. Scoot Henderson led the Trail Blazers with 31 factors after he went 5-of-9 from the 3-point line, and Holiday completed with 16 factors and 9 assists.
Game 3 of the sequence is ready for Friday night time on the Moda Center in Portland. It’s unclear how lengthy Wembanyama will likely be in concussion protocol, although Friday’s sport is technically outdoors of the league-required 48-hour window.
If Wembanyama finally ends up lacking any prolonged time, the sequence may shift dramatically. With issues tied now 1-1 and headed to the Pacific Northwest for the primary time, it clearly already has.