The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Injuries to key players piling up around NBA
Indiana Pacers All-star guard Tyrese Haliburton strained his left hamstring during a victory over Boston and will begin receiving treatment immediately, the team said Tuesday.
Team officials did not provide a timetable for Haliburton's return in the announcement and said updates would be provided as warranted.
The 23-year-old point guard was injured in the first half against the Celtics on Monday when he slipped while driving toward the basket. He immediately reached for his hamstring and teammates carried him from the court to the locker room. An MRI confirmed the injury.
He is Indiana's top scorer at 23.6 points per game, the NBA leader in assists at 12.5 per game, and the catalyst of the league's highest-scoring offense (127.0). Haliburton also would have won last year's league assists title had he played in enough games to qualify and appeared to be a lock to play in his second straight All-star Game, this one in Indianapolis on Feb. 18.
Indiana is currently tied for fourth in the Eastern Conference and is 6-3 against the conference's top two teams, Boston and Milwaukee.
Cunningham out for the Pistons
Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham will miss at least a week with a left knee strain, the team said Tuesday.
The team said the injury was revealed on an MRI on Monday. He will be re-evaluated in seven to 10 days.
The Pistons have an Nba-worst 3-33 record, but Cunningham had been a bright spot. He is averaging 22.8 points, 7.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game.
Cunningham was injured in the second quarter of Sunday's 131-114 loss to the
Denver Nuggets.
The Pistons host the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night.
Morant sidelined for the season
Ja Morant's season is over, with the Memphis Grizzlies announcing Monday night that their star guard needs surgery to repair a tear in his right shoulder.
Morant got hurt in practice on Saturday, the Grizzlies said. The two-time All-star was in a sling for the Grizzlies' game against Phoenix on Sunday, and then the news came a day later about how serious the issue was.
“Following ongoing soreness and instability, Morant underwent an MRI that revealed an underlying labral tear,” the Grizzlies said.
Morant missed the first 25 games of the season while serving an NBA suspension for displaying a gun on social media — his second such suspension in less than a year, after missing eight games last season for a similar offense.
He returned from the 25-game suspension and averaged 25.1 points in nine games, with the Grizzlies going 6-3 in those contests.
The Grizzlies are 7-20 without Morant this season, are 4 1/2 games out of the final play-in spot in the Western Conference, and now have to go the rest of the way without their best player. A playoff push, with Morant, didn’t seem completely unreasonable. Without him, the long odds just got much longer.
The severity of the shoulder issue caught the Grizzlies off-guard. On Sunday, Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said Morant was dealing with soreness and even went as far as to say it would be a game-time decision against the Suns.