LeVert’s status still up in air

SALT LAKE CITY — The Nets are still being coy about Caris LeVert’s thumb injury. The young wing didn’t play in Tuesday’s 119-114 loss to the Jazz, and his status beyond that is still up in the air.

LeVert sprained his right thumb in Sunday’s blowout loss at the Suns. He had X-rays after that game, an MRI exam before Tuesday’s defeat and afterward the Nets still offered no update on the severity of his injury or a timetable for his return.

Any injury to LeVert typically leaves Nets fans anxious. He’s second on the team in scoring (16.8 points) and third in minutes (31.6). He’s also averaging five rebounds, four assists and is a solid two-way wing with no natural replacement.

Unfortunately, LeVert’s injury history is long and well-chronicled. Foot woes at Michigan led to him falling in the draft. And he has never played more than 71 games in an NBA campaign, missing 25 as a rookie and 42 last season with a nasty dislocated foot.

In LeVert’s absence, Kenny Atkinson opted to keep sixth man Spencer Dinwiddie leading the bench unit and started Garrett Temple at shooting guard next to Kyrie Irving.

Temple finished with 10 points in 29:43 minutes, and even got crunch-time minutes down the stretch over Dinwiddie, who had 21 points and four assists in 23:44.

Dinwiddie was on the floor when the Nets opened the fourth quarter up 92-84, but watched the Jazz open the period with an 8-0 run. Atkinson called a timeout and put Temple in the game, and Dinwiddie never got off the bench the rest of the way.

“Yeah I liked the group that was in there. I thought GT, I liked Garrett Temple on Donovan Mitchell. I liked that matchup,” Atkinson said. “I wanted to keep that matchup. I thought [Taurean Prince] was playing well. Just a feel. I thought we were slugging it out with them. And just a feel.”

Temple, who has a reputation as a strong defender, pointed to a 13-0 run to open the third quarter and that 8-0 run to open the fourth as keys.

“That run at the beginning of the third, that’s something that we’ve got to really nip in the bud,” Temple said. “We were able to stop them before they took the lead and then in the beginning of the fourth Emmanuel Mudiay was a big factor.”