By John Wilmes
It’s not a good day for Washington Wizards fans. After All-Star point guard John Wall led them to a sweep of the Toronto Raptors in the first round, and a judicious 1-0 lead over the Atlanta Hawks in the second, he’s been all but called for the season.
Thursday, the team announced the severity of Wall’s wrist injury, sustained in Game 1 against the Hawks. Wall has five non-displaced fractures in his left wrist and hand. The Wizards have made no official ruling on their star, but it’s becoming easy to see a grim version of events in the short-term future: Without Wall for the next week or so, they’ll be too overwhelmed by Atlanta to win another game, and their season will end swiftly.
Wall’s team reports that his wrist swelled up substantially after he fell on his hand, and that the swelling has yet to even go down enough for them to make a proper evaluation. It would seem that the only reason Washington is not saying Wall’s out for the season is because of how hard of a pill that news would be to swallow. After looking like dark-horse title contenders for weeks, the Wiz are now facing the prospect of having their hopes dashed by a prickly twist of fate.
In Wall’s place, Ramon Sessions started Game 2, and will presumably maintain the role of his replacement going forward. Sessions performed admirably, scoring 21 points, but he cannot be expected to terrorize defenses and offenses alike the way one of the very best players in the game was doing. Atlanta tied the series in convincing fashion Tuesday night, 106-90.
So while it may be too early to say that Wall and his team’s season are over definitively, such a conclusion does seem like the most likely course over the next week or two. Nobody, not even the Hawks, likes to see a promising playoff run end this way.
More from Athlon Sports:
