During the fourth quarter of the San Antonio Spurs’ Game 2 drubbing of the Houston Rockets, Tony Parker went down with a left leg injury and needed to be carried off the court. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
And the news afterward wasn’t any better.
Though the Spurs didn’t clarify his status, head coach Gregg Popovich also didn’t sound like someone who expects to see Parker again in these playoffs, per the San Antonio Express-News‘ Melissa Rohlin:
When asked about the injury after the game, Popovich said, “It’s not good.”
Manu Ginobili shared these sentiments:
Manu Ginobili said he saw Parker after after the game and that Parker was still in pain. He said Parker remained unable to put any weight on his left leg.
“It’s hard to see him limping and hurting now and you kind of know we’re not going to see him any time soon,” Ginobili said. “So, that’s a tough blow.”
This was a non-contact injury, so the severity of the aftermath doesn’t infer good things. Even worse, the Spurs have to figure out how to cover up for Parker’s absence.
Patty Mills can and will play more minutes. The Spurs have the option of using Ginobili as a pseudo point guard, a role he often plays within the second unit. But Dejounte Murray may need to be thrown into the fire as more than a garbage-time contributor. Letting Kawhi Leonard orchestrate more of the offense might work, but the Spurs won’t want to increase his already unfathomably heavy burden. Jimmy Butler started to slump when the Chicago Bulls asked him to do everything against the Boston Celtics in Round 1; Leonard might be superhuman, but he’s not immune to exhaustion when pushed to that point.
On the semi-bright side, the Spurs have still been able to pump in 115.5 points per 100 possessions when Parker is off the court, according to NBA.com. But he’s also been playing more than 26 minutes per game. That’s a lot to replace. The Spurs won’t be able to just tack on that workload to Ginobili’s and Mills’ playing patterns. They’ll need someone else to help running point. That someone else could even be Jonathon Simmons. We don’t know.
All we do know is that Parker, barring a surprisingly optimistic prognosis, appears to be done for the year, and San Antonio will have to adjust accordingly.
