Feeling the pain
Hard-luck injury injury to Dieng sums up season
After shootaround in Denver on Wednesday morning, Spurs center Gorgui Dieng conducted a virtual meeting with reporters with an ice pack wrapped around his sprained right shoulder.
His prognosis is positive enough to avoid a stay on the injured list.
“It’s going to hurt throughout the whole season,” Dieng said. “But from this point on it cannot get worse.”
If a Zoom call is worth a thousand words, the visual spoke volumes about the state of the Spurs’ season.
The team signed the veteran big man March 29 as a much-needed reinforcement for a playoff push.
Spurs Insider at Nuggets,
He got hurt almost immediately, providing a reminder that the NBA’S free-agent market comes with a “no refunds” policy.
Five minutes and 34 seconds into his first appearance in a Spurs uniform, Dieng banged his shooting shoulder into Sacramento’s Chime
zie Metu.
The ensuing injury knocked Dieng from that March 31 game, which the Spurs won 120-106, and caused him to also miss overtime losses to Atlanta and Indiana.
“First play I got hurt,” Dieng said. “I was kind of down.”
The Spurs know the feeling. They headed to Denver this week for a pair of games Wednesday and Friday with their playoff hopes as battered as Dieng’s right shoulder.
The only difference is, for the Spurs things can get worse.
Having been six games above .500 as recently as March 19, the Spurs began a treacherous twofer at Ball Arena at an even 24-24 and clinging to contention for a Western Conference playoff berth.
At least they have their new toy available to aid in the fight.
Dieng returned for a nineminute shift in an otherwise demoralizing 125-101 loss to Cleveland on Monday, and was mostly OK.
He entered the game with 34 seconds remaining in the first quarter, and almost immediately drained a game-tying 3-pointer.
It was Dieng’s first NBA field goal since Feb. 28, when he was in the employ of Memphis.
“It sucks he got hurt his first game,” forward Demar Derozan said. “Once he finds a comfort level and gets more time out there, he is definitely going to fit in on both ends.”
Dieng finished Monday’s game with five points and a block. He also ended with four fouls in his limited shift, perhaps testament to the rust inherent in his monthlong layoff since falling out of the rotation in Memphis.
The Spurs were just glad Dieng emerged from Monday’s game in the same condition he entered it, unlike in his debut against the Kings.
Given Dieng’s 3-point ability — he made 47.8 percent of his 48 attempts to start the season in Memphis — and defensive activity in the paint, the Spurs expect Dieng to boost their bench once he gets up to speed.
“He’s a physical guy. He’s skilled; he can shoot,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “He understands how to play.”
Much of Dieng’s first week on the job with the Spurs was spent on the practice floor, running through scripts and going over terminology.
There has been some overlap with Dieng’s time in Memphis. His coach there, Taylor Jenkins, came from the Spurs’ tree.
“Gorgui’s been around,” Popovich said of the eight-year veteran. “He’s played a lot of basketball. It’s the NBA. Nothing’s too secret. He’s pretty much seen it all.”
Dieng joined the Spurs despite interest from teams that might be better equipped to make a deep playoff run this year, including Phoenix, Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Clippers.
He is not discouraged, even as he watched his new team go 1-4 since he signed.
“Winning in the NBA is hard,” said Dieng, who learned that firsthand through 6½ seasons in Minnesota. “It’s important to be disciplined and play the right way. You can’t do it for 30 minutes, 15 minutes. It has to be all 48.”
Dieng’s addition to the rotation will be a welcome sight for the Spurs, who need every upright body as they try to navigate a grueling finish to the season.
They also have been without guard Lonnie Walker IV, who was sidelined for his ninth consecutive game Wednesday with a right wrist injury.
Dejounte Murray missed Monday’s loss to the Cavaliers with a sore foot before returning to action Wednesday.
Walker’s injury came with a dose of poor timing. After registering a career-best 31 points in a loss at Milwaukee on March 20, Walker lasted nine minutes of the next game against Charlotte before aggravating his wrist.
“We need to get our team back,” forward Rudy Gay said. “We haven’t had everybody back in a while. We have had injuries, we have had people sick, we have had a lot of things.”
If it ever happens, a clean injury report would provide something of a morale boost, Derozan said.
“It’s a confidence thing, knowing you have all your guys and the camaraderie of playing together like you have the majority of the year,” Derozan said. “Just getting that back, putting everything back in place like it was when we were playing well will be huge.”
The Spurs’ newest addition has been around a little more than a week.
Even Dieng can sense the challenge that awaits the Spurs.
“Nobody is going to help us get out of this,” Dieng said. “We are going to have to do it for ourselves.”
Dieng is eager to help shoulder the load, even if one of them is sprained.