Nets star Kyrie Irving out again with shoulder injury
Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving will miss Monday’s game against the visiting Indiana Pacers, the team announced. The absence will mark the point guard’s second straight with a right shoulder impingement.
After scoring 27 points on 30 shots over 37 minutes in a loss to the Utah Jazz last week, Irving was listed as questionable prior to this past Thursday’s game against the Denver Nuggets. He played through the injury, scoring 17 points on 20 shots over 35 minutes in a third straight loss. Irving missed his first game of the season on Saturday, when the undermanned Nets defeated the Chicago Bulls.
Irving, whose 28.5 points and 7.2 assists per game both lead the Nets, first appeared on the injury list the same day news broke that teammate Caris LeVert would miss 4-6 weeks after undergoing thumb surgery. An extended absence for Irving could further set back a Nets team that has fallen well short of expectations early this season. Brooklyn currently sits in ninth place in the East with a 5-7 record.
An impingement occurs when bones in the shoulder inflame the tendons, rotator cuff and/or bursa sac at the joint. It is often caused by a repeated overhead motion like shooting. After starting the season making 40 percent if his 8.5 three-point attempts per game during his team’s 4-4 start, the 27-year-old Irving shot a combined 4 for 23 from deep (17.4 percent) in Brooklyn’s three straight losses last week.
Irving signed a four-year, $136.5 million contract with the Nets this past summer, when he and Kevin Durant joined forces in free agency. Durant is expected to miss this entire season with his Achilles injury.
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Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
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