Cavaliers' Shumpert 'heard a pop' in left groin
CLEVELAND — Iman Shumpert suffered a strained left groin in the third quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ 106-91 win over the Chicago Bulls in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Wednesday.
Shumpert said he “heard a pop” when the injury occurred and retreated to the locker room for immediate evaluation.
The fourth-year guard exited the game with 9:17 remaining in the third quarter and rode an exercise bike in the tunnel to try to stay loose after starting off with 15 points, six rebounds and three steals up to that point. He returned with 8:47 remaining in the fourth quarter and played an additional 4 minutes, 11 seconds, tacking on a missed shot, a rebound and a personal foul to his final stat line.
“I’m just going to keep treating it, make sure that I’m in the training room as many hours as I can to get ready for Game 3,” Shumpert said.
He later added: “It’s going to take a lot of doctors to tell me not to play Game 3.”
Shumpert has started the past two games at shooting guard in place of the suspended J.R. Smith, who will be back in the lineup for Friday’s Game 3 in Chicago. In his past three playoff games, including the starts, Shumpert is averaging 17.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game while shooting 9-for-19 from 3 (47.3 percent).
“He’s obviously a very, very important player for us,” Cavs coach David Blatt said. “I hope he’s going to be OK. He did stretch his groin and we’ll see if it’s not too serious. He was able to come back, as you saw. The moment we could get him out of there, we did. The idea of putting him back in was just because we’re going to need him and we didn’t want him sitting too long. Then, once we saw we had our hands around the game, we were able to sit him back down again. Time for one of those miracle 48-hour recoveries. That’s what we’re hoping for.”
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