Kevin Durant Out For At Least One Week
According to Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti, Kevin Durant has undergone a minor surgical procedure to help reduce pain and discomfort in his surgically repaired right foot.
Durant will be re-evaluated in a week, and is expected to return during the regular season.
Presti was quick to clarify that Durant’s foot had not sustained a new injury.
“There’s no new injury that’s been created,” Presti said. “It’s just a matter of discomfort.”
Durant previously underwent a procedure in October to repair a Jones fracture in his right foot and a screw was inserted. The fracture is said to be healing as expected, but the head of the original screw was rubbing against the cuboid bone in the foot, causing discomfort. To help alleviate the pain, Durant had a new screw inserted. The new screw does not have a head.
“The good news is that the fracture itself is healing excellently and from what the doctors conveyed to us we continue to feel very good about the prognosis moving forward,” Presti said. “But in the short term, as he’s continued to have this discomfort we wanted to determine the best way to alleviate it while still promoting the healing of the initial injury.”
Durant has been experiencing the pain for about two weeks, but has tried to play through it, before missing the team’s last two games. He has missed 29 games this season after missing only 16 total in the first seven years of his career.
He missed the opening six weeks of this season while recovering from the original surgery. He later would miss two weeks in December because of a right ankle sprain, and four games in January because of a sprained left big toe.
Durant, now in his eighth season, is averaging 25.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 27 games.
LeBron James Passes Allen Iverson on NBA Scoring List
LeBron James passed Allen Iverson as the 22nd all-time leading scorer in NBA history on Sunday during the Cavs’ 101-83 win against the Knicks.
James came into the game just three points shy of Iverson, and scored 18 points in 28 minutes to move past him. With 24,383 career points, he now sits 122 points behind his former Miami Heat teammate Ray Allen for 21st all-time.
“It’s very, very humbling and it’s an honor to just be named with some of the greats that I watched growing up,” James said to reporters following the game. “And now to know that I passed Allen Iverson on the all-time scoring list, for someone that’s not much of a scorer — as you guys have deemed me — it is pretty cool.”
Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, with 38,387 points, is the all-time NBA career leader, and holds a lead of over 14,000 more points than James.
Counting Allen, six players that are ahead of James on the all-time scoring list are still active. Kobe Bryant, who is third on the all-time list with 32,482 points, leads all active players.
Anthony Davis Reinjures Shoulder, Pelicans lose Ryan Anderson too
New Orleans Pelicans All-Star forward Anthony Davis is expected to miss up to two weeks after re-aggravating a shoulder injury in Saturday’s game against the Miami Heat.
Davis had only recently returned from a right shoulder sprain that caused him to miss two regular-season games and the All-Star game. The team announced on Sunday that Davis is expected to miss two weeks, after an MRI on Sunday revealed a sprained right shoulder.
Davis left Saturday’s game with 3:07 remaining in the first quarter, just after he attempted a shot while making contact with Miami’s Hassan Whiteside.
Davis is currently averaging 23.9 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game on the year.
The news comes at a tough time, as the team also lost forward Ryan Anderson during the same game. Anderson is expected to miss up to four weeks with a right knee sprain.
His knee buckled in the second quarter in Miami when Mario Chalmers stepped on his ankle as the two were fighting for a rebound.
Anderson averages 14.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per game this season.
