D'Angelo Russell ran headfirst into Luka's hip pic.twitter.com/JeXMx4B5Pa
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) December 29, 2019
Two measly words, but it’s all D’Angelo Russell needed to say and all the Warriors needed to hear.
“I’m good.”
It might be an exaggeration for a star guard who spent several minutes lying motionless on the court, for whom a stretcher was brought out but not actually used, who walked slowly to the tunnel but emerged shortly after and reentered the game.
But for all intents and purposes, D’Angelo Russell is good.
“You make contact with somebody at the force,” Russell said, “you’ll always be kind of scared. But time past and I felt fine. God is good.”
Russell was a first-half phenom and third-quarter terror on Saturday in the Warriors’ 141-121 loss to the Mavericks at Chase Center, scoring 30 in the first two quarters before Luka Doncic’s hip knocked him briefly from the game, with fears much worse and longer term.
Russell darted for a loose ball late in the third and crashed into Doncic’s side, bounced off and sprawled on the floor. The crowd hushed and both teams gathered around him, including a concerned-looking Doncic. The crowd rose when Russell did, and the fact he only missed a few minutes of game time is startling.
“Thank God it wasn’t nothing too serious, just a little shoulder contusion,” said Russell, who finished with 35 points on 13-of-21 shooting. “Kind of knocked the wind out of me.”
D’Angelo Russell: OK pic.twitter.com/gF0tPUNxxv
— KNBR (@KNBR) December 29, 2019
Knocked the wind out of Russell, knocked the hope out of the Warriors. For Steve Kerr, the greatest source of concern was Russell’s neck was involved.
“When [assistant coach] Mike [Brown] told me he was going to come back in the game, I was surprised — I thought he was out for sure,” Kerr said after the Warriors wasted a 74-point first half and snapped a four-game win streak. “That was great news. That’s probably the best news of the evening.”
For Draymond Green, the best news may have been that Russell was not stretchered off. He remembers LeBron James being carried off, only to return; Paul Pierce wheelchaired off, only to return.
“Happy he didn’t leave on a stretcher and then come back in. I would’ve lost all respect,” Green said after scoring 10 with eight assists. “We’ve had some guys do shit like that in this league. That’s crazy. It was good to see he just got up and walked off.”
The Warriors, collectively, were glad to see at least one injury this season was a false alarm.
“Praying, hoping it wasn’t anything too serious,” Damion Lee said. “Once he was able to get up on his own two feet, it gave everyone a little sigh of relief.”