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It was pretty difficult to take away any positive from the Cleveland Cavaliers' blowout loss against the Indiana Pacers on Monday night. Negatives, though? Finding negatives was damn easy. Forget the putrid defense and pathetic shooting percentages for a second and the Cavs might have a bigger problem on their hands.
Dion Waiters played the first quarter and didn't look particularly good while he did it. But then the Cavaliers rookie guard sat out the 2nd quarter and we got slightly concerned. The team announced that Dion was dealing with "knee soreness" and would not return to the game.
Afterwards, Dion said that it was something that he'd been dealing with for a while and that it just flared up a bit last night. That's not exactly surprising. Virtually all NBA players are going to experience knee pain at some point in time. Some players will play through it. But in Dion's case, there's not a whole lot of reason for him to labor through it when he's just 21 years old and the team is 22-45.
Here's what Dion said about his injury:
"It's just been lingering the last couple of games and it just wasn't feeling right tonight. I came in the back and the doctor said we'll find out things tomorrow.
I'm just going to take it day-by-day and I'm going to go get the test tomorrow. We're going to find out what's wrong and what's going on. I'm just going to take it day-by-day."
That's not great news, but it's not bad either. A lingering thing is better than "holy shit, I jumped and I heard a pop." So hopefully they do some tests and find out what's going on.
In less important news, Luke Walton suffered a nasal fracture against the San Antonio Spurs. He tried to play with the black mask against the Pacers, but really didn't like it. He'll need a custom clear mask before he can play in another game.
The Cavaliers will try to stop the Miami Heat's 23-game winning streak in Cleveland on Wednesday night. That's going to be really difficult without Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters.