After a controversial two-week suspension saw ESPN's top NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski surprisingly sidelined, the “Woj bomb” deployer sent off his first tweet in that time span, and it's bad news for Indiana Pacers and the Domantas Sabonis.
Per Wojnarowski, the 24-year-old big man left the Orlando bubble seeking help from a specialist on a “significant” foot injury.
Indiana's Domantas Sabonis has a signficant foot injury and will leave the Orlando bubble to seek treatment from a specialist, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 24, 2020
Sabonis, a first-time All-Star this season, is a key part of the Pacers' successful run in 2019-20. The former Gonzaga standout and son of NBA legend Arvydas Sabonis averaged 18.5 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game in 62 appearances prior to the league's coronavirus-related shutdown in March.
The Pacers enter the NBA’s 22-team “bubble” invited at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, with a 39-26 record, good for the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, a crapshoot after the top three teams. The Pacers are looking to seal up a first-round playoff matchup against likely the Miami Heat.
Before that, though, Indiana has eight regular-season games against seven teams in the bubble in the lead-up to the 2020 NBA playoffs, including two contests against the Heat, which could work as the teams sizing each other up.. The league's restart officially kicks off on July 30.
Sabonis' health is not the only Pacers body to look out for as former All-Star guard Victor Oladipo has sat on the fence on whether he'll be competing during the Orlando bubble or not. Oladipo missed a large chunk of the season after going down with a quad injury in 2018-19, returning in Jan. 2020.
Sabonis, along with TJ Warren and Malcolm Brogdon, has headlined a scrappy Pacers team seeking a first-round upset come postseason.
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