Marcus Smart’s trademark hustle once again appears to have come at a cost.
The Memphis Grizzlies guard Smart revealed to reporters after shootaround on Tuesday that he is dealing with a strange injury to his left hand. Smart, who was wearing tape on the palm of the hand, said that he dove for a loose ball during a Dec. 26 game against the New Orleans Pelicans and came away with splinters when his hand slid into the floor. The former Defensive Player of the Year added that he is still dealing with a sore spot in the hand that is affecting his grip on the ball.
“When I dove, my hand slid into the court and the court just took everything with it,” said Smart, via The Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Damichael Cole. “Last night, [the sore] kept getting re-opened. Every time the ball hit it, it just busted open with blood.
“When I caught the ball, by the time it got enough feeling back, it was time to make a play, shoot it or drive it,” Smart continued. “Nothing I put on it — Band-Aid, nothing — it won’t stay on it. It just kept re-opening, re-opening. Every time we close it, it’ll re-open again.”
Drew Hill of The Daily Memphian, another local writer who was present after shootaround on Tuesday, said that Smart peeled off the bandage on his hand to show it to reporters. Hill said that the wound was the size of a ping-pong ball and described it as “nasty.”
Smart was indeed seen on the television broadcast of the game against New Orleans, which Memphis won in overtime 116-115, getting his hand worked on by a trainer after diving for the ball.
Unsurprisingly, Smart’s numbers have suffered over his last three games playing through the injury. He is posting shooting splits of 44/29/73 over that span (though Smart’s volume has still been enough to support 17.0 points per game).
If this script sounds familiar, that is because it is. Smart already suffered a strange injury to his right hand back in 2018 that he continues to deal with the effects of. Now he has a bizarre injury to manage in his other hand too.
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