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Memphis Grizzlies forward JaMychal Green's MRI on his left ankle sprain came back clean with no further damage, but he is expected to miss several weeks with the injury, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical.
Green started and played just four minutes on Wednesday's season-opener before falling to the floor after chasing a rebound, landing on a New Orleans Pelicans player's foot. He was soon helped to the locker room after sustaining the injury.
“All the guys know what JaMychal means to our team on both ends of the court,” point guard Mike Conley said, according to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. “We responded. Everybody came in and did well. All you can do is pray and hope it’s a quick recovery and hope it’s not too serious. He’s in good spirits.”
His departure left room for Brandan Wright to shine — netting 10 points, four boards, two steals, and a block over his 27 minutes on the floor. Rookie Jarell Martin got 19 minutes off the bench, but didn't fare as well as Wright, scoring only two points and turning the ball over four times during his stretch.
Head coach David Fizdale isn't losing faith in him, though, as he will need his bigs to come through during Green's absence.
“At the end of the day you can’t wallow in that. That’s good adversity for us to have to be without him and if we have him we’ll be happy as heck,” Fizdale said. “But we just take every situation as it is. We don’t weigh into if it’s good or bad, we just learn from it and keep moving forward. Next man up. I thought Jarell (Martin) handled it very well. He had a great preseason.”
The Grizzlies now lack the veteran presence of Vince Carter, Zach Randolph, and Tony Allen — going all-in with their youth, but they'll need leadership now more than ever after their newly-paid starter has been sidelined for the foreseeable future.
