Oh no. Oh boy.
Early in the third quarter on Saturday, Jonas Valanciunas hit the floor under his own basket holding his right ankle in pain. He seemed to land awkwardly, landing on Dwyane Wade’s foot as he came down from contesting (and fouling) on a layup attempt.
He immediately went to the bench, and then the locker room. Heat fans cheered as he limped off and will not return. The team is calling it a right ankle sprain, and while X-rays were negative, he’s done for the night.
Jonas Valanciunas rolls ankle in Game 3 vs. Heat pic.twitter.com/S1HkTvUm8S
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) May 7, 2016
Here’s the Valanciunas injury, rolled his ankle pic.twitter.com/XJnFT5qMaL
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) May 7, 2016
Valanciunas was absolutely dominating before going down, thanks in part to the Heat losing their own center, Hassan Whiteside, for the game in the first half. He had 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting with 12 rebounds, and he was playing terrific at the defensive end, helping in the pick-and-roll and contesting well at the rim. That was the case before and after Whiteside went down, but a Valanciunas injury would take away Toronto’s biggest advantage the rest of this game. Over the first two games of the series, Valanciunas was perhaps the Raptors’ most effective player, and for the series he’s now a +39.
This renders both teams thin inside. Bismack Biyombo is playing poorly at the moment, Lucas Nogueira is inactive, and with the Heat short on options at the pivot, we could be headed for competing super-small lineups with Luol Deng and Patrick Patterson as the de facto centers. Luis Scola could theoretically see some time at the five, too, if the Heat insist on keeping a big on the floor.
Hopefully it doesn’t come to that beyond the second half of Game 3, though, and Valanciunas (and Whiteside) is OK. I think we’d all rather watch Valanciunas and Whiteside go at it rather than their replacements.
