On Monday (26th January 2009) night, Phoenix Suns defeated Washington Wizards by 103-87. During the fourth quarter of this match, the center of the Wizards, Andray Blatche was knocked by Shaquille O’Neal near the baseline. A foul was declared for O’Neal and Blatche required help to stand up again and finally hopped to the locker room. He has a strained left knee and would miss action for 2 to 4 weeks. He has not missed a single game in this season so far and has averaged 5.4 rebounds and 10.1 points after 23 starts. Although, he is a natural power forward, he was allocated the position of starting center as Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood were injured. Ed Tapscott, the interim coach, has said that in Blatche’s absence, either rookie JaVale McGee or Darius Songaila would begin the game on Wednesday.
Stevenson’s problem
DeShawn Stevenson, the guard, has missed action from 30th December 2008 due to a sore back. He has now started practice and expects that he would play against Philadelphia on Friday and against Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday. The pain that he felt was due to a disc applying pressure on a nerve in the lower back. He disclosed that if he did not experience pain after the above mentioned games, he would continue playing.
Thomas’s problem
Thomas has a torn ligament in the left knee and has been out of the team since 12th January 2009. Tapscott revealed that it is not possible for him to run for almost 2 to 4 weeks. Also, after these are over, he would not be able to practice for 2 weeks. It is being hoped that he would be able to recover without any surgery.