After Nets swingman Caris LeVert went down with a gruesome leg injury a little less than a month ago, the team feared the worst, with several of LeVert’s teammates seen visibly crying after the injury occurred.
Fear turned to relief, however, when tests revealed a subtalar dislocation of the right foot, no broken bones, and a prognosis of a possible return to the court this season.
Since the injury, however, the Nets are 2-11 and have lost eight straight after blowing another big lead against the Thunder tonight. Before the injury, the Nets were off to their best start since the 2014-2015 season with a 6-7 record. So not surprisingly, the relief that Brooklyn felt after LeVert’s diagnosis is starting to wane, writes Anthony Puccio of NetsDaily.
“I just think Caris gives us a different dimension, especially against the switching teams,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Teams were much more hesitant to switch against us because he’d just blow by the big that was guarding him. It’s a dimension we don’t have (now).”
In other words, LeVert made players better on both ends of the floor, with veteran Jared Dudley even going as far as to publicly call LeVert the Nets’ best player earlier this week. “We lost our best player and have lost three to five games by like two to six points, Dudley tweeted. “(We) could easily be (a) .500 basketball team.”
There is still no timetable for LeVert’s return, but the Nets still presumably hope to have him back on the court before the end of the 2018/19 season.
Phoenix is missing Devin Booker too. At one time last night Sacramento led them 53-18.
The Suns have been bad with or without Booker.