When Kentavious Caldwell-Pope slipped on a wet spot on the court and went down Sunday, it looked bad -- real bad. I actually attended the game, and from my spot in the stands it almost looked like he was doing The Worm the way he initially writhed on the court.
Even after he was helped to the bench, he kept burying his face in a towel before being helped to the locker room. My gut feeling was, "Dang, that looked like an ACL." Judging from reactions on Twitter, I wasn't alone. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, it sounds like KCP had similar thoughts. From David Mayo of MLive:
"It scared me a little bit," he said. "I really didn't want to hear what the doctor was saying or what they were saying (in Washington). I was just trying to keep myself calm."
[...] "I'm walking on it, I can bend it a little bit," he said. "It's still kind of tender and sore but it's getting better.
"Right now, I'm just blessed not to be really hurt. It was a good thing I didn't have a serious injury and I can recover from it."
It's not yet known when KCP will return, but by all accounts it sounds like it'll happen either before or in time for the regular-season opener on Oct. 29. In the meantime, Stan Van Gundy is still salty at the Wizards' ball boys for not taking more precautions after several players repeatedly slipped in the same spot:
"It happened like three or four times," Van Gundy said. "It would be nice if they dried it up. Seemed pretty simple to me, you watch three or four people slip. I guess because it wasn't any of their people, it wasn't really a concern."