Nets' Allen Crabbe to miss Utah game with sore knee
Allen Crabbe takes a three-point shot against the Chicago Bulls at Barclays Center on Feb. 8. Credit: Jim McIsaac
SALT LAKE CITY — After missing 27 games with a sore right knee that lingered mysteriously, Allen Crabbe mostly struggled the past 15 games since his return, and now he finds himself back on the shelf with a recurrence of soreness in the same knee. Following Nets practice Friday, coach Kenny Atkinson announced that Crabbe will miss at least Saturday’s game in Utah and Sunday’s game at the Los Angeles Clippers after undergoing treatment.
“Same knee, sore knee, little swollen,” Atkinson said tersely. “He started to have some issues toward the end in the last game [at Oklahoma City]. Bad break.”
Asked what caused the knee to flare up again, Crabbe said there was no specific play or moment that prompted the pain, and he speculated it happened when he returned to his full workload as a starter.
“I guess with three minutes left in the OKC game, that’s when I started feeling it,” Crabbe said. “It flared up again. I already had some swelling in the knee. We just drained it again, did the little procedure. It’s basically like the last couple things that we’ve done.
“They got all that excess fluid out. They said it’s like 48 hours, 72 hours, manage it and go from there. It’s day to day really.”
Crabbe is a career 39.3-percent shooter from three-point range, but over his past 10 games, that mark dipped to 28.6. Although Atkinson said the injury “obviously was bothering” Crabbe, he declined to blame the drop-off in his shooting on the injury.
“I’m moving normal, everything is still basically the same,” Crabbe said. “Just flared up again.”
Asked if the injury might linger the way it did previously, Crabbe responded emphatically, saying: “Nah, it’s definitely not going to be the same thing as last time. It’s not the same pain. With this procedure, you can’t get it and then just hop right back into it. You have to let it calm down, let the medicine kick in and do its job. It’s definitely not going to be like the last time.”
The good news is that DeMarre Carroll, Treveon Graham and Shabazz Napier all are listed as probable to face the Jazz.
Greg Logan has worked for Newsday since 1982 covering a wide array of sports and events, currently including the Brooklyn Nets beat.
