Nets forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson suffered another groin injury on Saturday, but the severity of the issue isn’t worse than his strained right adductor from this past summer, Brian Lewis of the New York Post writes.
Hollis-Jefferson sustained the injury as the team played Milwaukee, with the 23-year-old heading to the locker room for examination and being ruled out of the game early.
“Yeah,” he said, “I felt a little strange feeling on a crossover going baseline. It just felt weird to me so I just wanted to be cautious and talk to our training staff, see what was going on.”
Hollis-Jefferson missed the entire preseason following his adductor injury on Aug. 4, making his debut nearly 12 weeks after the injury on Oct. 24. News of his Saturday’s injury not being worse than the problem in August comes as a relief for Brooklyn, a team already playing without talented wing Caris LeVert.
Hollis-Jefferson has started in 19 of 34 games this season, averaging 9.9 points per contest while playing his usual stellar defense. He’ll undergo further examination on Sunday with hopes of making a return in the near future.
“You know where your groin is, so I knew it was my groin,” Hollis-Jefferson said, according to Lewis. “But I’m no doctor, so I didn’t know “Oh, it’s this severe” or whatever the case may be. I knew it was my groin. A little sore. But we’ll go see [Sunday], check and see how it feels, how everything is.”
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division today:
- Sixers All-Star Joel Embiid is quietly building a case for Defensive Player of the Year this season, Brian Seltzer of Sixers.com writes. Philadelphia sports an impressive 101.9 defensive rating when Embiid is on the court, turning into a different team when he’s protecting the rim. “I’ve said it many times, and I’ll say it again, he is the Defensive Player of the Year,” coach Brett Brown said. “When I look at our metrics, his impact on this team is overwhelming.”
- Before the Celtics‘ game against the Rockets last week, coaches from both teams praised Marcus Smart for the intensity he brings on defense. Smart notched 11 points, three assists and a steal in the game, defending players such as James Harden and Eric Gordon. “Just his ability to stick his nose into everything and stamina, strength, and then being willing to do all the dirty work,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said of Smart, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “He’s one of the better defenders in the league. He’s like P.J. [Tucker] for us. They do what’s needed. And some people have noses for the ball, situations they can think they’re way out of defensively. He does that.”
- Knicks guard Trey Burke has regained his love for basketball while playing in New York, Eric Woodyard of the Deseret News writes. Burke started his career with the Jazz, a tumultuous time period he still reflects on today. “I’ve had to figure the league out,” Burke said. “I think individually it helped me kind of look myself in the mirror and re-evaluate what I needed to get better at and the areas I needed to grow in.”
I’ve got news for Brett Brown …Embiid is in the East. Who’s he guarding? Where is the challenge? Defensive player of the year, no way !!
embiid deserves a trophy for something, sixers definitely have zero chance at winning a ring
He will win more with Philly than with Boston, as simple as. Where are the superstars in Boston? The league is won by the stars getting the ball at the end of the game, Philly has 3 top-20 players, Boston might have 1…
In order to be able to be considered top 20, you have to be able to shoot from your position on the ranking in feet away, and Simmons isn’t in the top 15, which is as far as he can shoot. They have two top 20 players, and Boston has 1 for sure, plus a better supporting cast.
Embiid is a better DPOY than Draymond or Gobert!
Just saying it doesn’t make it so and I disagree. You got to tell me why.
The Embiid comments are comical. Do some research folks
I know right. Can you believe they’re thinking about him as Defensive Player of the Year? LOL. I’m with you buddy. Very laughable.
If Coach Brown has some metric that nobody else knows about, then, for the sake of his player’s DPOY case, he should make it public. Or, he should say he think metrics in this case are misleading (which they often are, particularly this early in the year, although it’s early to hand a guy a full year award too).