It started as an innocent enough play: Victor Wembanyama had guard Jrue Holiday on him and Wemby tried a spin move to get around (or through) his defender to get to the rim. Holiday pulled the chair on him, and in doing so tripped Wembanyama, who went to the ground — but Wemby tried to pass the ball so his hands could not protect his head, and he fell face-first onto the court.
Wembanyama left the game not to return and is now in the league’s concussion protocol, San Antonio announced before Game 2 ended.
The big question for Spurs fans: When will he return?
NBA Concussion Protocol
The NBA concussion protocol calls for 24 hours of no activity by the player after the injury. Following that, if he is symptom-free, for the next 24 hours, he can slowly, gradually start to do some basketball activity, but the player cannot begin full participation in the return to play protocol until at least 48 hours from the time of the injury.
From the NBA’s protocol:
• The return to participation process involves several steps of increasing exertion — from a stationary bike, to jogging, to agility work, to non-contact team drills.
• Each exertion stage must be directly monitored by a member of the team’s medical staff. With each step, a focused neurological examination is performed, and a player must be symptom free to move to the next step. If a player is not symptom free after a step, he stops until he is symptom free and beings again at the previous step of the process (i.e., the last step he passed without any symptoms).
Once those steps are completed, the team physician must discuss the return-to-participation process and decision with the Director of the NBA Concussion Program, a doctor who specializes in these injuries.
When might Wembanyama return
Game 3 is in Portland on Friday night, and while in theory Wembanyama could be cleared by then, that seems unlikely at best. Especially considering San Antonio as an organization tends to be conservative in bringing players back from any injury.
Game 4 is Sunday, also in Portland, but don’t be surprised if Wembanyama is out for that game as well. As noted by Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes, the median time missed for a concussion in the NBA is seven days, although because of the nature of the injury and its healing, some players are out longer (the average time missed is 9.3 days).
Game 5 is back in San Antonio on Tuesday, April 28, one week after the concussion happened.
Spurs without Wembanyama
San Antonio is used to playing without Wembanyama, and it went an impressive 12-6 in the games he missed this season. The Spurs overall had a neutral +.04 net rating when Wembanyama was off the court this season.
At center, Luke Kornet — who has been rock solid this season — moves into the starting lineup, and behind him one of Mason Plumlee, Kelly Olynyk or Bismack Biyombo needs to step up.
However, what San Antonio needs is much better guard play than it saw late against Portland in Game 2 — the Spurs started the fourth quarter on a 13-0 run to go up by 14 with fewer than 10 minutes remaining, then they let Scoot Henderson and the Trail Blazers close the game on a 27-10 run to steal the win. Former Clutch Player of the Year De’Aaron Fox was 1-of-6 in the fourth quarter on Tuesday. Portland’s Holiday outworked Devin Vassell for a rebound of an airballed 3 to get an easy bucket inside. The athletic, physical perimeter defenders for the Trail Blazers threw the Spurs’ guards off their game.
For San Antonio to win on the road, the team’s star guards — Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper — need to step up, get by their defenders and downhill to touch the paint, then either kick out for the open 3-pointer or score themselves. Each of them has an impressive midrange game and can finish at the rim, but all of that disappeared at the end of Game 2 when the Spurs needed it. That can’t happen again. The Spurs need that trio to take over, not just tread water until Wembanyama returns.
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