The Oklahoma City Thunder announced on Friday morning that starting point guard Russell Westbrook suffered a torn lateral meniscus in his right knee and will be foreced to undergo surgery to repair the injury.
The news is certainly a potential, monumental blow to the Thunder and the expectations of not only winning the Western Conference, but also an NBA Championship. Oklahoma City is the No. 1 seed out west and the Thunder currently lead the Houston Rockets 2-0 in their opening round series.
Obviously Westbrook will not suit up in the team’s Game 3 contest on Saturday night and in fact, there is no timetable for his return and it remains up in the air just how much time he could miss. Some meniscus tears only require a player to miss approximately 1-2 weeks (ex. Metta World Peace), but others can be much more serious and can run into the 4-6 week range. It is undetermined which level of severity this injury to Westbrook really is.
The injury occurred in Wednesday night’s Game 2 victory over the Rockets when Patrick Beverly reached in for a steal while Westbrook was trying to call for a timeout. Westbrook reacted in a way that the injury would suggest, but at the time, it didn’t seem anything more than a quick tweak. Beverly attempted to steal the basketball and awkwardly bumped into Westbrook’s knee. Westbrook winced and hobbled off the court, slapping the scorer’s table in pain. He did play through the injury on Wednesday night, however.
Westbrook was averaging 24.0 points, 7.0 assists and 6.5 rebounds this postseason.
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