Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal will not play when NBA resumes due to shoulder injury

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2020/07/washington-wizards-star-bradley-beal-will-not-play-when-nba-resumes-due-to-shoulder-injury.html



Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal will not play when NBA resumes due to shoulder injury



Updated 11:43 AM; Today 11:34 AM



By John Karalis | JKaralis@masslive.com



The Washington Wizards announced on Tuesday that star guard Bradley Beal will not be participating in the NBA’s restart due to an injured left shoulder.

“Bradley did everything possible to be ready to play, but after closely monitoring his individual workouts we came to the conclusion that it was best for him to sit out the upcoming games in Orlando and avoid the risk of further injury,” Wizards General Manager Tommy Sheppard said in a statement. “Although he was able to play through the majority of the season with the injury, the layoff from March until now did not leave any of us feeling comfortable that he would have enough time to be ready to perform at the extremely high level we are all accustomed to seeing and agreed that not participating in the games in Orlando was the right decision.”


Beal originally suffered the injury in November, but it he still managed to average a career-high 30.5 points per game. The Wizards are currently ninth in the East, five-and-a-half games behind Orlando for the eighth seed, but due to the new restart rules, they’d only have to get within two games of eighth to force a play-in series. The ninth-seeded team would have to win two games in that series, while the eight seed would only have to win one.


“This was a difficult decision and one that I did not take lightly as the leader of this team,” said Beal. “I wanted to help my teammates compete for a playoff spot in Orlando, but also understand that this will be best for all of us in the long term. I appreciate the support of my teammates, the fans and the entire organization and look forward to returning next season to continue the progress we have made.”

The Wizards are already without Davis Bertans, a sharp-shooting big who averaged a career-high 15.4 points on 42.4% shooting on 3-pointers. Bertans, who has a history of ACL injuries, is entering free agency, and chose not to risk injury when the season resumes. Rookie Rui Hachimura enters the restart as the Wizards leading active scorer this season.


The Boston Celtics are scheduled to face Washington on August 13, which is the final seeding game.


bob
MY NOTE:  Unfortunately the bailouts are on teams I expect us to beat anyway.  It'd be nice if Giannis, Middleton and Siakem all came down with a mild case of something...



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