UPDATE: Portland G Rudy Fernandez sustained a soft tissue injury to his right upper chest and side area in the third quarter of Monday night’s game vs. the Los Angeles Lakers. X-Rays and CT scan were both negative. Fernandez will be kept overnight at an area hospital for observation. He is listed as questionable for Wednesday’s game vs. the Dallas Mavericks.
INITIAL NOTES:
Monday night in Portland the Trail Blazers were hosting the Los Angeles Lakers. Enjoying a late third quarter 83-55 lead, it was Portland’s night.
Pau Gasol had been the only Laker playing well, shooting 7-of-12 for 18 points and 13 assists. His teammates, including Kobe Bryant (8-of-22, 16 points) were struggling.
With just 0.8 seconds seconds left in the third, a Blazers fast break resulted in Rudy Fernandez catching a pass going right down the middle of the paint. As he jumped at the basket to score, Lakers swingman Trevor Ariza swooped in from behind and swung his right arm sideways in very broad fashion, hitting Rudy’s arms and the back of his head near the neck area.
Ariza really followed through on the swipe, and snagged Rudy’s wrist in the end.
Fernandez totally lost his balance due to the contact and slammed down hard on the court, landing on his back while slightly twisted onto his right side, and crumbled over.
Both teams immediately rushed over, grabbing and pushing each other right in front of the Lakers bench, but I didn’t see any actual punches thrown.
An angry Brandon Roy yelled furiously at Ariza. Others jawed as well. Ariza was yelling stuff at other Blazers, too. He’s out of line here.
It appears that Lamar Odom left the Lakers bench, very briefly, just a few feet away. I’m not sure how far he went. He barely went anywhere.
A flagrant-2 was called on Ariza, which means he’s ejected.
A stretcher has been brought out to safely remove Fernandez, who is lying on his back, from the court. He’s been put down on the stretcher, covered with a blanket, and strapped down onto it securely, which is always an extremely scary sight to see.
Aside from the flagrant-2 called on Ariza, technical fouls were called on Blazers LaMarcus Aldridge, Travis Outlaw and Laker Josh Powell.
Later in the game it was reported by Blazers television that Fernandez has chest pains and is being taken to a hospital.
I’m guessing Ariza could be suspended one game. But that’s no guarantee. But Odom could be suspended for leaving the bench, though I didn’t see if he went far enough away from it to warrant such an action.
Here’s a video of Ariza’s foul on Fernandez:
–Jeff
Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard has a sore left ankle, will remain in Dallas and will miss the next two games in order to have more specialized testing done.
New York Knicks forward Al Harrington and his house were recently featured on a new episode of MTV Cribs.
The Golden State Warriors have waived guard Marcus Williams, the team announced Tuesday (March 10).
Monta Ellis hasn’t played since scoring 14 points in a 133-120 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 21. After that game, the Warriors announced that Ellis would be shut down for one to two weeks because of lingering stiffness in his left ankle. Turns out, that might not have been the case. On Monday, Ellis said the ankle is fine and that it always has been fine. “There’s nothing wrong with my ankle,” Ellis said. “I went to see my mom. … It had nothing to do with that. I went home to see my mom. My mom was sick. I went to see her. That’s why I took the time off. It had nothing to do with my ankle.”
The Oregonian (Jason Quick) reports (via blog): In Greg Oden’s world, everything, and everyone, is seemingly against him. “It’s like, dang, can I ever do anything right?” Oden says. His body has been besieged by injuries during his two seasons in Portland, the most prominent setbacks to his knees. His right knee required microfracture surgery in September 2007, forcing him to miss all of his first season. Now, his left knee is threatening to put an end to this season. On Feb.12, in what seemed like an innocuous collision near the free throw line with Golden State’s Corey Maggette, Oden suffered a chipped left kneecap. Since then, everything has been a mess. The Blazers admit they misplayed the injury, announcing Oden’s status was day-to-day, when in fact, team doctors and trainers knew from the start they were dealing with a potential long-term injury.
Chicago Bulls scoring guard Ben Gordon will be a free agent this summer. The team reportedly offered him a reasonable, generous contract that Gordon didn’t want to accept.