Houston Rockets point guard Patrick Beverley suffered a right knee injury late in overtime of their 122-120 Game 1 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, the same knee where he tore his meniscus in late March. But it appears he's dodged a bullet, as he's expected to play in Game 2 after the MRI showed no new damage.
Patrick Beverley expected to play in Game 2 despite troublesome knee injury
The Rockets sent Patrick Beverley to get an MRI on his ailing knee after Game 1’s loss, but he’s expected to suit up in Game 2 after no new damage was uncovered.
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Houston's Patrick Beverley will likely play in Game 2 on Wednesday, league source tells Yahoo. Met with team doctor this morning.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) April 21, 2014 The Rockets initially called the injury a "sprained right knee," and there were fears it might end his season. But those fears have proven to be unfounded, at least for now.
.@patbev21 has a sprained right knee, the same knee he injured earlier this season. He is scheduled for an MRI on Monday.
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) April 21, 2014 Patrick Beverley gets MRI in morning, but there's a great deal of fear within Rockets on the extent of re-aggravation of knee injury.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) April 21, 2014 Beverley took contact on the knee on a screen from Blazers power forward LaMarcus Aldridge with 1:04 left in the extra period. He stayed in the game and made a massive block on Damian Lillard before fouling out.
Beverley scored nine points and grabbed six rebounds in 38 minutes against the Blazers. While backup point guard Jeremy Lin had a nice offensive game, Beverley is the far superior defender. Lillard dropped 31 points on 9-for-19 shooting, and one can only imagine his numbers if Beverley wasn’t hounding him.
The Dream Shake: Rockets fall in overtime classic
The fiery guard missed eight games after originally hurting his knee on March 27. After the game, Houston center Dwight Howard sounded about as bummed as you'd expect.
“All of us are saddened by the fact that Pat hurt his knee again,” Howard said, via the Houston Chronicle. “I didn’t want to see anything happen to him ... It hurts all of us. We just have to step up here as a team and win it for him.”
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