Raptors' injuries no joke
Vince Carter didn't want to be the butt of jokes any more, but it happened again late Saturday on ESPN's SportsCenter.
Highlights were being shown from the Marshall-Akron NCAA football game in which Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich suffered a left shin injury, went to the hospital for x-rays, then came back to the stadium and re-entered the game. At one point after a long gain, the limping Leftwich actually was carried down the field by a couple of his linemen, but he kept playing.
"He's the anti-Vince Carter!" one of SportsCenter's anchormen declared.
Ha ha ha. It's safe to say Carter, his teammates and Raptors fans weren't laughing.
Carter re-injured his left knee -- the same left knee that was repaired surgically last spring -- midway through the first quarter of the Raptors' 88-76 loss to the Houston Rockets at the Compaq Center on Saturday. Carter was re-evaluated yesterday in Toronto and it was confirmed that he yet again has strained his left quadriceps tendon. No structural damage has been detected in the knee and he will continue to be listed as day-to-day, although it's doubtful he'll suit up tonight when the Raptors play host to the Chicago Bulls.
One Raptor who definitely won't play tonight is Antonio Davis. It was determined yesterday that Davis suffered a sprained rib -- not a strained rib muscle, as initially thought -- on Saturday and he will be out of the lineup for one to two weeks.
While it's good news for Carter that nothing horrific was found during the testing yesterday, the fact that his knee is sore at all represents a discouraging turn of events. After a summer of rehabilitation, Carter spent the past two months telling everyone his knee was fine and that he was aiming to be "even better than I was when I was at my best."
Carter understandably is frustrated, as is everyone else close to the situation.
"You work so hard to get to the point where you can go out there and play again, and then something breaks down," said Carter, who has not been shooting the ball well, but noticeably has been trying to be a team leader in the early stages of the season. "(Injuries) come in different ways. All I know is, it doesn't feel good."
Besides Carter and Davis, there's a chance Raptors forward Jerome Williams might not play tonight, either. But Williams, who barely can run because of his strained left hamstring, may be forced into duty out of sheer necessity.
"My game is high energy and it's hard to go full-tilt on one leg," Williams said.
When Davis was asked if he ever before had been part of a team that had so many key players injured at the same time, he didn't have to rack his brain for very long.
"Oh yeah, it happened last year (with the Raptors)," Davis said. "It's going to happen. It's how we respond that's important.
"I'm not going to try to be a hero early in the year. It's important for us to put things in perspective. We're not happy with what's going on, but it is early, it is a learning process and we have a long way to go. I truly believe that."
That said, when you add the problems facing Carter, Williams and Davis to the long-term injuries already suffered by Lamond Murray (foot), Eric Montross (foot) and Nate Huffman (knee), you have to wonder what the Raptors did to make the basketball gods so damned mad.
"I don't think we did anything," Raptors coach Lenny Wilkens said.
Well, some higher power somewhere must not be happy.
LONG-TERM CONCERN
Long-term, obviously the biggest worry is Carter. Last season he aggravated his knee in the first game. This season it happened in the third.
Everyone has a different pain threshold and no one but Carter really knows how his knee feels. The simple truth is that Carter's knee is not healthy enough to allow him to play without thinking about it or favouring it, and in the grand scheme that's all that matters.
Carter was hoping the jokes were over and all this was behind him for good.
"I guess not," he said. "I guess not."
Vince Carter didn't want to be the butt of jokes any more, but it happened again late Saturday on ESPN's SportsCenter.
Highlights were being shown from the Marshall-Akron NCAA football game in which Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich suffered a left shin injury, went to the hospital for x-rays, then came back to the stadium and re-entered the game. At one point after a long gain, the limping Leftwich actually was carried down the field by a couple of his linemen, but he kept playing.
"He's the anti-Vince Carter!" one of SportsCenter's anchormen declared.
Ha ha ha. It's safe to say Carter, his teammates and Raptors fans weren't laughing.
Carter re-injured his left knee -- the same left knee that was repaired surgically last spring -- midway through the first quarter of the Raptors' 88-76 loss to the Houston Rockets at the Compaq Center on Saturday. Carter was re-evaluated yesterday in Toronto and it was confirmed that he yet again has strained his left quadriceps tendon. No structural damage has been detected in the knee and he will continue to be listed as day-to-day, although it's doubtful he'll suit up tonight when the Raptors play host to the Chicago Bulls.
One Raptor who definitely won't play tonight is Antonio Davis. It was determined yesterday that Davis suffered a sprained rib -- not a strained rib muscle, as initially thought -- on Saturday and he will be out of the lineup for one to two weeks.
While it's good news for Carter that nothing horrific was found during the testing yesterday, the fact that his knee is sore at all represents a discouraging turn of events. After a summer of rehabilitation, Carter spent the past two months telling everyone his knee was fine and that he was aiming to be "even better than I was when I was at my best."
Carter understandably is frustrated, as is everyone else close to the situation.
"You work so hard to get to the point where you can go out there and play again, and then something breaks down," said Carter, who has not been shooting the ball well, but noticeably has been trying to be a team leader in the early stages of the season. "(Injuries) come in different ways. All I know is, it doesn't feel good."
Besides Carter and Davis, there's a chance Raptors forward Jerome Williams might not play tonight, either. But Williams, who barely can run because of his strained left hamstring, may be forced into duty out of sheer necessity.
"My game is high energy and it's hard to go full-tilt on one leg," Williams said.
When Davis was asked if he ever before had been part of a team that had so many key players injured at the same time, he didn't have to rack his brain for very long.
"Oh yeah, it happened last year (with the Raptors)," Davis said. "It's going to happen. It's how we respond that's important.
"I'm not going to try to be a hero early in the year. It's important for us to put things in perspective. We're not happy with what's going on, but it is early, it is a learning process and we have a long way to go. I truly believe that."
That said, when you add the problems facing Carter, Williams and Davis to the long-term injuries already suffered by Lamond Murray (foot), Eric Montross (foot) and Nate Huffman (knee), you have to wonder what the Raptors did to make the basketball gods so damned mad.
"I don't think we did anything," Raptors coach Lenny Wilkens said.
Well, some higher power somewhere must not be happy.
LONG-TERM CONCERN
Long-term, obviously the biggest worry is Carter. Last season he aggravated his knee in the first game. This season it happened in the third.
Everyone has a different pain threshold and no one but Carter really knows how his knee feels. The simple truth is that Carter's knee is not healthy enough to allow him to play without thinking about it or favouring it, and in the grand scheme that's all that matters.
Carter was hoping the jokes were over and all this was behind him for good.
"I guess not," he said. "I guess not."
