LEBRON AND CO. BRUSH ASIDE WARRIORS IN GAME 6
Cavaliers come up huge at home 115-101 to force Game 7 Sunday as Warriors fail to seal deal,
CLEVELAND— Andrew Bogut all but ruled himself out of the Rio Olympics on Thursday, saying the bone bruises around his left knee almost certainly will not be healed in time for him to play for Australia this summer.
“I’m not great at math, but six to eight weeks minimum is what I’ve been told,” the Golden State centre said as his Warriors teammates ran through their shootaround practice in advance of Thursday night’s Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“It’s very unlikely at this point to be honest.”
His math is right: The Olympics start in about seven weeks.
Bogut suffered an impaction injury that led to the bone bruises in Game 5 of the title series.
Bogut blocked a shot by Cleveland’s J.R. Smith, and Smith tumbled awkwardly into him moments later.
“Somehow he cannonballed right into my shin with his shoulder,” Bogut said.
“I thought I blew out my knee with the pain I had.”
Bogut said he heard two bones crack, though that was apparently the bone-on-bone impact.
He plans to rehab aggressively for the next month or so with hopes of speeding up the recovery process, but acknowledged he will need a “miracle” to be ready in time for the Olympics given that there’s almost no way he can participate in any training with the team beforehand. He’s been in touch with officials from Australia about his status, and said they joined him in being disappointed.
“We’ll reevaluate it in a month,” Bogut said. “If I can get back on the court, we’ll see. But as of now it’s not looking good.”
Bogut said if he can’t play, he won’t be going to Rio even to watch. He expressed some concerns in recent days about the Zika virus that is over- shadowing much of the run-up to the Rio Games, but was committed to playing for Australia regardless.
“I’m not going to be travelling around, doing all that if I’m not playing,” Bogut said. CAUTIOUS GASOL: Spain’s Pau Gasol says he will consider freezing a sperm sample because of concerns over Zika if he decides to play in the Rio Olympics.
The 35-year-old Chicago Bulls centre has yet to commit to playing for Spain. Gasol has led Spain to two consecutive silver medals after losing to the United States in the 2008 and 2012 finals.
In most known cases, Zika causes flu-like symptoms for a few days. But it has been blamed for a huge rise in Brazil of microcephaly, or babies born with abnormally small heads, and some cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can cause paralysis, usually temporarily.