Liz Robbins of the New York Times reports that The Nets are in a bit of a tail spin. They have lost the first two games of their four-game west coast trip and now Dikembe Mutombo has injured the wrist of his shooting hand.
The injury was suffered in the third quarter of the Nets' 126-118 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. X-rays were negative, but he has been listed as questionable for Saturday?s game against the Trail Blazers. On Friday Nets' president, Rod Thorn, said: "It's real sore today. As to whether he can play tomorrow, we'll just have to see."
Mutombo injured the wrist with six minutes to play in the third quarter when, driving to the basket, the Clippers' Eric Piatkowski slapped him and the ball. On the following defensive sequence, Mutombo motioned for Scott to take him out. He went to the locker room and had the wrist taped. Even though Mutombo played 11 minutes in the fourth quarter and all of the overtime period with the injury, he was in obvious pain afterward.
With the loss, the Nets dropped to 10-6 and are losing any positive momentum they have built up this early in the season. "It's the same situation we had last year with games on the West Coast and we lost four in a row," Coach Byron Scott said. "We're headed that way now."