NBA News: Joel Przybilla Knee Injury The Game With Mavericks
Joel Przybilla suffered a ruptured right patella tendon and patella dislocation in the 1st quarter of tonight's game at Dallas. He is out definitely.
Late in the first quarter of the Blazers game against the Mavericks, Joel Przybilla tangled legs with Erick Dampier on a rebound attempt with Przybilla ending up on the ground clutching his right knee. He landed on that knee with his right leg bent underneath him. Przybilla was helped off the floor and straight back to the locker room.
As it happens, the Blazers held on to win the game, 85-81, but that's a minor victory in the face of the potentially devastating loss of Przybilla, who entered the game as Portland's lone healthy center. Without him, the team will likely be forced to play LaMarcus Aldridge, a finesse four, out of position at the five, or rely heavily upon 36-year-old Juwan Howard, who hasn't averaged more than this season's 12.1 minutes per game since 2007, and hope he's not the next to break down.
In a rare stroke of good luck, the Blazers did recently activate rookie power forward Jeff Pendergraph, the first pick of the second round last June, after he missed the entire season to date recovering from hip surgery in September. He made his season debut on Tuesday, scoring two points in three minutes, and will likely go from being a total afterthought to potentially the first big off the bench in a matter of days.
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