Bad news for the Golden State Warriors. A team already short big men, could potentially lose another.
Warriors center, Jermaine O’ Neal, is going for an MRI before game seven tonight. He suffered a sprained right knee, on what he called, “a dirty play”, when Los Angeles Clippers Center, Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis, went barreling into his legs. Sam Amick, of USA Today reports O’Neal had the following comments:
“It’s just a dirty play, to be quite honest. I mean I’m not going to go try to dive into somebody’s legs—it wasn’t a scramble for the ball. I respect people’s ability to come out and perform and take care of their family based on their bodies. Either he has terrible balance as a pro athlete, or that was a dirty play. God don’t like ugly.”
O’Neal, although hobbled, has said he will do everything in his power to be on the floor for this win or go home game seven.
“Anything short of God coming back and rapture — anything short of that, I will play,” O’Neal said Thursday night.
The Warriors will definitely miss Jermaine O’ Neal’s inside presence with the Clippers bigs leaping all over the place, and there can be no doubt they would miss his experience in such a crucial game setting. In these scenarios, ANY little advantage could be the difference in moving on to round two, and watching the rest of the playoffs from the couch.