Grizzlies forward Jake LaRavia is undergoing a procedure to address a corneal abrasion of his left eye, the team announced in a press release on Tuesday (Twitter link). According to the club, LaRavia will be reevaluated in about two or three weeks, so he won’t return until sometime in December, at the earliest.
It’s the latest in a growing list of injuries for the Grizzlies, who are missing big men Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke due to long-term ailments and have also had Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard, and Xavier Tillman go down recently.
The Grizzlies are already carrying one extra player on their standard roster while Ja Morant is on the suspended list, but could qualify for another roster spot via the hardship provision. A team can apply for a hardship exception when it has at least four players who have missed three or more consecutive games due to injury or illness, assuming those players will remain sidelined for the foreseeable future.
Wednesday’s game vs. Houston will be the third straight that Smart, Kennard, and Tillman have missed, so the Grizzlies could request a hardship exception after that contest if they want to try to add some extra depth.
Here are a few more injury-related updates from around the NBA:
- Lakers forward Cam Reddish left Tuesday’s win over Utah early due to a groin injury and didn’t return. He’ll undergo further evaluation on Wednesday to assess the severity of the injury, sources tell Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link). Head coach Darvin Ham said that second-year guard Max Christie could play a “really prominent” role on Wednesday vs. Dallas if Reddish can’t go, tweets Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
- Suns forward Yuta Watanabe, who was unavailable for a second straight game on Tuesday, has a “deep” thigh bruise that head coach Frank Vogel described as “really painful,” per Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (Twitter link). Watanabe’s return timeline is unclear.
- Nets guard Dennis Smith Jr., affected by a lower back sprain, underwent an MRI on Tuesday, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Smith will be out for a second consecutive game on Wednesday.
- Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn added that the team should have an update on injured guard Cam Thomas (ankle sprain) later this week, according to Lewis. “He is heading in the right direction,” Vaughn said of Thomas. “Unless we wanted to be extremely proficient in giving him an MRI to compare to, to my knowledge he won’t need another MRI. He’s building towards getting back on the floor.”