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Injury Updates: Morant, Giannis, Wiggins, Payne

April 20th 2023 at 8:59am CST by Arthur Hill

Going into Wednesday’s Game 2, there were indications that Ja Morant‘s right hand injury had healed enough for him to play, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. In a meeting with reporters shortly before game time, Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said his star guard was “feeling a little bit better,” adding that he just had to clear some tests regarding his grip and his ability to dribble.

The announcement that Morant would miss the game was made about an hour before tipoff. Jenkins explained that the team decided to be cautious with the injury, which an MRI revealed involves soft tissues between the bones in Morant’s hand.

“He got all the testing and was still battling some soreness, a little pain,” Jenkins said. “It’s just a collective decision. We all decided that, and obviously he’s a warrior, he wants to be out there, would do anything to be out there, but we just felt like hey, just given all the testing results, give him this game and just wait a couple more days in between.

“We’re hopeful that with the progress he’s making the last couple of days, you know, he’ll be back sooner rather than later. Can’t guarantee when that’s going to be, but it was just one of those things that we just couldn’t, you know, pull it to have him in tonight.”

The series will resume Saturday night in Los Angeles.

There’s more injury news to pass along:

  • It was also close to game time Wednesday when the Bucks determined that Giannis Antetokounmpo wouldn’t be available, per Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Antetokounmpo had been upgraded to questionable, but the team opted to not to take a risk with his injured back. “I told him this morning, like, I know you’re going to want to come back but if you don’t, just know we got you,” Jrue Holiday said. “Again, our team has the ultimate confidence in each other and we know how Giannis is. We know Giannis is going to try and make that Superman effort and come back and play 48 minutes and do what he does, but like I said, we can hold down the fort until he comes back.”
  • The Warriors are listing Andrew Wiggins as questionable for Thursday’s Game 3 with soreness in his right shoulder, tweets Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Wiggins has been dealing with the shoulder issue since the postseason began, but he was able to play 39 minutes in Game 2.
  • Backup point guard Cameron Payne remains questionable for the Suns in Game 3, tweets Law Murray of the Athletic, who adds that coach Monty Williams indicated that Payne has to overcome “movement-related hurdles” before he can play again.
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