Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving broke his right hand during a practice in Las Vegas and could be sidelined two months.
The NBA’s Rookie of the Year injured his hand slapping the padding on a wall. The Cavaliers said in a release Saturday night that Irving is returning to Cleveland for an examination on Sunday.
Irving’s injury is a setback for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft who dazzled during workouts and scrimmages against the US Olympic team recently.
Irving, 20, missed time as a rookie with a variety of injuries and played in only 11 games as a freshman at Duke because of a toe injury.
According to the Akron Beacon Journal, Irving was upset with himself after turning the ball over in practice and he smacked his hand into the padding on the wall. The padding was thinner than he thought, he said, but it didn’t hurt right away and he kept playing. Then his hand was hit again a few minutes later and he took himself out.
Lin done with Knicks?
According to the New York Post, in a stunning turn of events on Saturday, the Knicks worked a sign-and-trade deal with Portland for ex-Knicks point guard Raymond Felton that likely would end the Jeremy Lin era. In the deal, the Knicks acquired Felton and former Knick Kurt Thomas from the Blazers for Jared Jeffries and Dan Gadzuric. The person who confirmed the trade said the Knicks do no plan to match the Rockets’ offer sheet on Lin.
The Post reported in Saturday’s editions the Knicks were “unhappy’’ the Rockets changed the offer sheet for Lin and upgraded it to a $25 million guarantee over three years, according to a source.
The Knicks were set to match Lin’s original offer sheet of four years, $28.9 million that only had a $19 million guarantee before the Rockets threw a curveball that called for a $15 million third year that would have doomed the Knicks’ luxury-tax predicament.
Saturday night, the Knicks also declined to match the offer sheet of Landry Fields, as expected. The Raptors offered Fields a three-year, $19 million deal that was backloaded in the third year at $8.5 million.
Hornets keep Gordon
The Hornets Saturday matched the Phoenix Suns’ four-year, $58 million offer to Eric Gordon, keeping the restricted free agent guard in New Orleans. The move to retain Gordon was expected, as Hornets general manager Dell Demps and coach Monty Williams had indicated they hoped the 23-year-old former Indiana standout could be the centerpiece of a rebuilding effort that also will include first overall draft choice Anthony Davis and No. 10 pick Austin Rivers . . . The Pistons signed 24-year-old Ukrainian center Vyacheslav Kravtsov to a multiyear contract. The 6-foot-11-inch Kravtsov has played for the Ukrainian national team since 2006 . . . The Bobcats were awarded center Brendan Haywood off waivers from the Mavericks, who used the amnesty clause to cut loose the 11-year veteran.