WASHINGTON — The carousel of injuries continues for the Washington Wizards, who every day seem to lose players just as they get others back.
The latest updates include Bradley Beal being questionable for Saturday’s game against the Knicks, Rui Hachimura and Davis Bertans being out and Thomas Bryant nearing his return. This comes on the heels of Jordan McRae (finger) returning against the Pistons on Thursday night and Isaiah Thomas getting set to come back from a two-game suspension.
Beal, who left Thursday’s loss to the Pistons, is dealing with soreness in his lower right leg and had a clean MRI, according to head coach Scott Brooks. But Beal’s status is considered questionable as he aims to continue his consecutive games played streak which currently stands at 194.
Hachimura has missed five games and will now miss at least a sixth. The team said when he first suffered his groin injury, which required a small procedure, that he would be re-evaluated after five games. As of Friday’s practice, the Wizards did not have an update.
What is interesting about Hachimura’s status, though, is that his recovery has not allowed him to be around the team. He wasn’t at their last home game on Dec. 18, stayed home for their entire four-game road trip and was not at practice on Friday.
Brooks said Hachimura is still sore, evidently enough that he can’t move well enough to go to games or practices. Perhaps that changes soon, but it can’t be taken as a good sign he will be playing anytime soon.
Bertans, who is dealing with a quadriceps strain, wasn’t with the team on Friday, either. At this point, he is considered day-to-day.
Bryant, who has a stress reaction in his right foot, practiced with the Wizards on Friday and will continue to ramp things up over the weekend in practices with the Capital City Go-Go of the G-League. He believes he is close and was encouraged by not being held out of any drills on Friday.
As the Wizards continue to deal with an exorbitant amount of injuries, enough to receive two hardship exceptions from the league, Bryant said one moment stood out above all that made him realize just how bad matters have been.
“Seeing Admiral [Schofield] play center,” Bryant said.
Schofield is a 6-foot-5 forward, but that’s the situation the Wizards have found themselves in lately. It sounds like they have a few players close to getting back. Maybe this time, more won’t go down.
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