8:44pm: Metu will be re-evaluated in four weeks, according to a team press release.
5:09pm: Kings forward Chimezie Metu has a fractured wrist and will be sidelined for several weeks, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee reports.
The injury occurred on what Kings coach Luke Walton deemed a “dangerous play” by Grizzlies center Jonas Valanciunas on Sunday.
Metu continued to experience soreness after going through pregame warmups for Monday’s game against the Nets. An X-ray afterward revealed a right wrist fracture.
He’ll be examined by a hand specialist to determine his recovery timeline, Anderson adds.
After Metu dunked during the fourth quarter on Sunday, he hung from the rim with Valanciunas standing beneath him. Valanciunas appeared to pull Metu down by his left leg, according to Anderson, causing him to crash to the floor. Metu extended his right hand to break his fall.
Valanciunas was given a technical foul on the play for unsportsmanlike conduct, but not a flagrant foul.
Metu is on a two-way contract with the Kings. A 2018 second-round pick of the Spurs, Metu has appeared in 11 games for the Kings this season. He’s averaging 3.4 PPG and 2.1 RPG in 6.5 MPG.
Nooo! He was playing great!
Play was trash. You got dunked on. Take it like a man.
The way Valanciunas spun him around looked like it twisted Metu’s wrist beyond its natural range of motion while the hand was holding onto the rim.
I’d not be surprised to see this punished retroactively by the League.
#metu
That’s very unfortunate, Metu looks like he has a lot of potential
Nba is a to much for him. All nba player are good players with athletic or a good skill set, but for a really nba level is, metu to limited
and here comes Belly!
Maybe in Miami or Philly. Metu is Center, Belly Power forward
Big man details wouldn’t matter..Metu and Belly are front court players and Belly will be in the rotation..saw a sh*t ton of Belly tonight against the Heat
Nice work J-Val! How many dinners do you gotta buy a guy when you unnecessarily injure him like this I wonder?
Is this car or new suit territory?
Refs don’t seem to like ejections. Flagrant foul rules ate helpful to this. Used to be, two technicals mean ejection… still is so, but a category was put in meaning a person could have a technical and a flagrant-1 and still not get tossed… assuming an incident does not get downgraded to a flagrant-2 anyway… video replay offers another way out for an attacker as did in this case.
No reason for Valens to get mad. He is standing under the rim; traffic tends to meet there. Move if he doesn’t like it.