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It didn’t look good when Pacers forward Domantas Sabonis limped off the floor in Detroit late in the team’s loss to the Pistons on Monday night. But the news on Tuesday that Sabonis would be out “out for a couple of games,” sounded even worse.
With Victor Oladipo out, losing another key cog on the heels of surviving without Myles Turner for a couple of games, has Nate McMillan juggling his playing rotation even further during a stretch of games on the schedule that the Pacers need to lock up wins before things turn gnarly late next week.
Sabonis has been a security blanket of late off the bench, helping the Pacers rebound from poor starts to games. Looking at the back-to-back in Dallas and then at home against Minnesota on Thursday, it is safe to say Domas will sit. Then the Pacers have two home games in six days before heading to Milwaukee a week from Thursday.
Sabonis will have ample time to rest and rehab the ankle at home, so hopefully the worst case scenario is he misses those two home games against Orlando and Chicago and then is ready for the 11-game gauntlet through March.
There is no ‘woe is me’ worries coming from the Pacers locker room, though as J. Michael reported from Dallas.
“Domas is going to be missed but we think we can handle it with those two guys coming in soaking up those minutes,” Young said. “T.J. has the ability to score. Kyle, we know he’s a bruiser, a rebounder, a defender and can knock down the mid-range jump shot. We’ll be good.”
The team expects to have Kyle O’Quinn fill in the reserve big role and will likely give more minutes to T.J. Leaf off the bench. Shorthanded or not, the Pacers will continue grinding for wins and they fully expect to find a way to make those wins happen.
Check out the links:
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