The Toronto Raptors may have dodged a bullet.
DeMarre Carroll is being treated symptomatically for a left wrist contusion and is considered questionable for Game 6 against the Miami Heat on Friday.
Carroll originally injured the wrist in the third quarter trying to brace his fall on a block-charge call he got the wrong end of the whistle on. An X-ray came back negative and Carroll’s injury was called a contusion, but the team sent him for additional diagnostic testing after the game. Those tests came back negative, too.
He was gone by the time media availability opened, and so he’s yet to comment on the injury. Carroll will speak at practice today.
Carroll left wrist injury. pic.twitter.com/UNLnByF1nh
— Raptors Republic (@raptorsrepublic) May 12, 2016
The loss of Carroll would be huge for the the Raptors, full stop. Not only is the team already down Jonas Valanciunas, but losing Carroll would take away a lot of their ability to comfortably play small and switch across the Heat’s bevy of large wings. Norman Powell and Terrence Ross exist, sure, but they give up a lot of size, size the Raptors are already giving up around the floor. If Carroll is out, it likely means the Raptors have to stay big, a fine proposition when Bismack Biyombo is in the game but one that has proven problematic when it’s another center (Lucas Nogueira and Jason Thompson both had unimpressive stints). It would likely mean some James Johnson to help on Joe Johnson and Dwyane Wade, but as much as we all love James Johnson, there’s a reason he hasn’t been trusted much in the postseason.
Through five games, Carroll was doing a solid, if somewhat inconsistent job at the defensive end and providing more offensive punch than since before he went down injured in the first place. He was just 1-of-7 Thursday, but his attacking off the catch and quickly swinging to the next man provided some of the lone instances of Raptor ball movement in the series’ earlier games. Carroll is averaging 11.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, one assist, and 1.4 steals while hitting 8-of-18 on threes in the series, and the Raptors are a plus-17 with him on the court.
Given Carroll’s history of playing through injuries and the fact that there is no structural damage to his non-shooting wrist, it’s hard to imagine him sitting out tomorrow. He seems to thrive on the grind, and while the Raptors won’t allow a player to risk further injury, Carroll’s attitude is probably that he can rest it during the offseason, similar to how DeMar DeRozan is approaching his thumb injury. You’re not saving Carroll for anything if they can’t win without him, after all, and while they might be able to, the Raptors would surely prefer not to find out.
Things may even out some, as they did in Game 3, as the Heat suffered a blow to their combo-forward in Game 5, too. Luol Deng also left the game in the third quarter with a wrist injury and is set for an MRI on Thursday.
