Guard has bone bruise under right kneecap
The departure of Gilbert Arenas means the Wizards officially are John Wall’s team.
If only Wall could play.
After missing the last three games with what had been described as tendinitis in his right knee, the rookie point guard revealed Sunday that his injury was actually a bone bruise under his kneecap.
Asked whether he would be available this week, Wall answered: “Probably not, not right now. Not the way it’s feeling.”
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Wall knows about tendinitis, a condition he dealt with in high school and as recently as July during the Las Vegas Summer League.
“It’s painful when you got tendinitis, but you can still be able to play and run through it,” Wall said. “But I couldn’t do no squats, and I couldn’t really run. I couldn’t cut, so I knew it had to be something more than that.”
Various ailments have kept Wall on the bench for 10 of the last 18 games, a stretch in which the Wizards (6-19) have won only four times, and the latest setback forced coach Flip Saunders to take a guarded approach, describing Wall as day-to-day.
“I wish I knew,” Saunders said when asked about a timetable for Wall’s return. “Hopefully, it’s going to be sooner than later. What we don’t want to have happen is we don’t want to be in a situation where he comes back for a game or two and then he’s got to sit out two. We are being more cautious to try to get this thing to be as pain free as it can be.”
Without Wall and Arenas available in the backcourt, Kirk Hinrich was forced to play all but six seconds of Washington’s 95-94 loss to Miami on Saturday, a situation that won’t be tenable over the longer term. Saunders said point guard might be done by committee, with small forward Josh Howard even being marshaled into the role.
Six-foot-10 Rashard Lewis, who was acquired from Orlando in the Arenas trade and is expected in Washington on Monday, likely won’t be a candidate.
The Wizards released guard Lester Hudson in November when they felt they had enough depth in the backcourt, but Arenas’ departure and the prospect of being without Wall for a more extended period has put them back in the market sooner than they had expected.
“We’re looking now to see what’s out there and if it makes any sense,” Saunders said.
