Wizards holding John Wall out two weeks due to knee discomfort, inflammation
— -- Washington Wizards star John Wall will not play for approximately two weeks as he deals with discomfort and inflammation in his left knee, the team announced Saturday.
Wall is set to undergo?platelet-rich plasma and viscosupplementation injections to reduce the inflammation after the injury was diagnosed via an MRI exam Friday.
He initially was injured during a Nov. 7 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Wall sat out a loss to the Toronto Raptors on Nov. 19 due to knee soreness but had played the past two games.
Wall previously said fluid on his knee built up after he received IV fluids to deal with illness and migraines before the Wizards hosted the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 11.
"I'm fine with John missing two weeks if this is going to make him better," center Marcin Gortat said Saturday. "Two weeks are not two months. We can cover for him for two weeks, and then he's going to come back stronger, better, healthy, and then hopefully we can go from there. That said, he's our leader."
Dr. Richard D. Parker with the Cleveland Clinic Marymount was consulted about the injury. Parker performed a procedure in May 2016 to remove calcific deposits in Wall's left patella tendon.
The Wizards are 1-1 without Wall this season but have seen a marked drop on offense when he is off the court, according to ESPN Stats & Information. When Wall is playing, the Wizards are averaging 110.6 points per possession, which would rank third in the NBA. With Wall off the court, that offensive rating drops to 99.8, which would rank 26th.
Wall is averaging 20.3 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. He leads the Wizards and is third in the NBA with 9.2 assists per game.
Backup Tim Frazier will replace Wall in the starting lineup with Tomas Satoransky moving into the rotation. Acquired from the New Orleans Pelicans during the offseason, Frazier is averaging 3.2 points and 3.9 assists in 16.6 minutes per game. He has 42 career starts including two this season and 35 with the Pelicans during the 2016-17 campaign.
"Next guy has to step up. That's it," said Frazier, who had eight assists in each of his two starts this season. "Obviously we can't be John, an All-Star, our leader, our best player, but we just got to step up and be the best we can and get as many wins as possible."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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