It's a new year, and the 2023-24 NBA regular season has reached the middle of the season. As the schedule progresses and teams play more and more games, we can see more and more teams starting to have injury problems. Players have been injured one after another, which has left some teams very injured. The other day, the Houston Rockets lost 2 big men in 2 consecutive games. Dillon Brooks retired midway through the game against the Pacers, and Jabari Smith Jr. returned to the locker room with an injury in the game against the Suns. For a moment, Rockets fans were very worried.
Fortunately, Smith Jr.'s injury was not serious, and he quickly returned to the team and played in the Rockets' game against the Pistons. However, Dillon does not have a clear timetable for his return at the moment, which is still one of the hidden dangers of the Rockets. Another example is the Suns in the West, because of the injuries of Beal and Nurkic, the Suns' record slipped all the way to tenth in the West, and the star Kevin Durant even began to feel depressed about this, which affected the mood of the whole team. There are also stars such as the Lakers' thick eyebrows, the 76ers' Embiid, and the Heat's Butler, all of whom have been plagued by injuries to varying degrees.
The players mentioned above are currently affected by injuries, but fortunately they have not suffered major injuries and can recover after a short period of rest. However, the player who will talk about next is not so lucky, because the injury he suffered was enough to keep him out for the rest of the season, and to put it bluntly, he had to be reimbursed for the season. He is the Heat's Drew Smith. Drew Smith was injured in the previous game against the Cavaliers, and the cause of the injury is also very bizarre and bizarre, and it is difficult to encounter such a situation.
According to the game-time replay, Drew Smith stepped on the tactical paper under the Cavaliers' coach's seat while defending the opponent's shot, and then slipped and injured his knee...... And his injury completely said goodbye to this season. Heat officials announced today that Drew Smith suffered a Grade 3 anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) sprain in his right knee and will miss the rest of the season. According to relevant media reports, Drew Smith has successfully undergone right anterior cruciate ligament repair surgery on December 30 local time.
Heat officials say Drew Smith will miss the rest of the season, but he will begin the recovery process immediately. There is no timetable for his return yet. This season, Drew Smith is averaging 4.3 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. How ridiculous it is that a player stepped on a piece of paper during a game, which in turn led to a season reimbursement. Of course, this kind of absurd thing in the NBA has not only happened to Drew Smith this time, but Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon has missed many games because of a dog bite, which is also very grotesque.
Having said that, it's not just Drew Smith who has been unlucky, but the Heat team has been quite unlucky in recent years. They have been very competitive in recent years, and even reached the finals, but every critical moment, they will be affected by injuries, in addition to this injury, it is the absence that has greatly damaged their combat power. Less than halfway through this season, there was another situation where players were reimbursed for the season due to injury, which can only be said to be fateful. In addition, Jimmy Butler has also been injured recently, and perhaps their championship plan will be difficult to achieve this year!