We’re edging dangerously close to absurdity here at the Verizon Center, where the Wizards have suffered another couple of injuries, one minor, one slightly more so. First off, Gilbert Arenas was held out of practice with some soreness in his left calf. Second, guard Mike James, who jammed his left hand in practice on Satuday — one day after 6 points and 3 assists in his season debut during Washington’s loss at Indiana — found out this morning that the fourth metacarpal in his left hand is broken. Emerging from the locker room with his left hand in a cast, he’s set to miss 4-5 weeks.
The casualty list was already a long one: Antawn Jamison (shoulder), Mike Miller (shoulder), and Javaris Crittenton (foot surgery). The plan is for Jamison to perhaps return to full practice on Thursday, and Miller was only set to be out 7-10 days, so both of them, in theory, could be back on the floor when the Wizards host Detroit on Saturday night.
Reporters were joking about assistant coach Sam Cassell perhaps getting a ten-day contract after seeing him in a practice jersey. Turns out he actually did practice because the Wizards once overstocked backcourt is down to bare bones.
“That might not be out of the realm of possibility,” joked head coach Flip Saunders.
“It’s just something freaking random,” said James, who had no idea his Monday would be this bad. “I felt it pop, but I didn’t think it was nothing severe. It felt more like a jam, and it winds up being – when I went to the doctor today, I just knew the news wasn’t going to be bad, and he was just going to tell me it was more like a sprain. I looked at the X-ray, and I had a nice few words for him. But it wasn’t his fault, and when I went to go put the cast on, I was fighting the doctor to put the cast on because I didn’t want a cast on again. But it’s not his fault neither. The only thing I can do now is just try to rehab, make sure that when this comes off that I’m ready. It’s just the tale of the season I’ve been having so far.”
James, who broke his right pinky last year, tried to find a silver lining.
“It’s not all bad because I don’t have to get surgery so I still can work out,” he said. “I still can train. I still can shoot with my right hand. It’s just the fact of it being another cast.”
