John Wall’s Injury: Five Fractures In Left Wrist And Hand, Playoff Status Uncertain

John Wall’s injury is more serious than originally thought, and it’s causing some tension within the Washington Wizards’ ranks.

The Washington Post is reporting that Wall did not suffer a bad sprain to his left wrist after landing on his left hand falling to the court in Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference semi-final against the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks’ Jeff Teague undercut Wall during a missed fast-break layup, sending Wall to the floor. X-rays were taken that night, and no breaks were shown. Just before Game 2, Wall tried to dribble with his left non-shooting hand, and couldn’t control the ball at all. Wall sat out Game 2, as well.

Ramon Sessions replaced Wall in Game 2.

“I told you guys before Game 2 this is the toughest son-of-a-gun I’ve been around, in John,” Coach Randy Wittman said. “That didn’t make me feel very good leading up to Game 2 when it came right before we went out that he couldn’t play because there’s not very much, in the five years I’ve been with him, that’s affected him not playing.”

The series now shifts to Washington, D.C., for Game 3. This gives Wall six days of downtime to rest his wrist. However, more X-rays were taken, and the latest pictures show that there are five non-displaced fractures in Wall’s left wrist and hand. This could put Wall out of the playoffs for the rest of the Wizards’ season.

According to NBC Sports, Wall and the Wizards’ doctors and training staff clashed over what exactly was going on. Wall had suffered a similar injury during high school and stressed to the staff the injury was more serious than previously believed. The staff still wasn’t sure. The second set of X-rays proved conclusively that Wall was right all along.

“I knew when I fell on it,” Wall said earlier this week. “You never know when you’ve got a lot of energy and power going down on the ground, so I thought I broke it.”

The issue now becomes what to do with Wall. Though he played valiantly through Game 1, there is no way to expect that Wall can continue. The San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard suffered a non-displaced fracture in his shooting hand that kept Leonard out of play for three weeks. Even though Wall’s injury is to his non-shooting hand, he still must maintain a level of dribbling and passing dexterity to help his team. With this injury, that is nearly impossible.

[Image courtesy of Washington CBS 11]