The San Antonio Spurs have been as snakebitten as any team in the NBA when it comes to injuries this season. Most notably, San Antonio has been without MVP-candidate Kawhi Leonard for all but nine games so far, but a number of others have missed double-digit games already this season.
Danny Green, Rudy Gay, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili have all missed at least 12 games this season. The rock for the Spurs has been All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge, who has averaged 22.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in 56 starts (out of 61 games). Aldridge and the seemingly endless collection of quality role players the Spurs have at their disposal have kept them afloat to the tune of a 36-25 record.
On Wednesday, while optimism was finally creeping in regarding Leonard’s eventual comeback hopefully in early-to-mid March, the Spurs saw Aldridge go down with a sprained right ankle against the Pelicans.
INJURY UPDATE: LaMarcus Aldridge (sprained right ankle) will not return to tonight's game.
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) March 1, 2018
While the severity of the sprain and how many games he may be forced to miss (if any) remain to be seen, it’s not what San Antonio wanted to see at all. In true Spurs fashion, the team continued to pull ahead of the Pelicans in the third quarter even without their All-Star, but one has to imagine that, at some point, if injuries continue to mount up they’ll start to see a slide. Hopefully, Aldridge won’t miss significant time, and the Spurs can put their full roster together for the stretch run and into the playoffs.
