But just last season, we reached the WCF on a Game 7 win on the road in Denver. Stotts-haters hate that but it's true. Also- this year, we had anything but a good season. But we beat out a lot of good teams for the play-in game and then won the play-in game. It was impressive. But the Lakers have more talent and we have injuries and absences. Bad combination.
The people that you call "Stotts haters" don't hate that we made the WCF at all. You're just making that up to fit your narrative. Dwayne Casey made the ECF before, and firing him and replacing him with Nick Nurse is a phenomenal move. Neither OKC nor Denver were true contenders, and every time we play a true contender in the playoffs, we get absolutely destroyed, leading to series losses in 4 or 5 games (just like this one will be). I won't take anyone seriously if they're trying to tell me Stotts is automatically a good coach because he won some games against OKC and Denver. And Memphis was impressive? Memphis was 2-5 in the bubble outside of games we played. They were missing JJJ. If that was impressive you have an extremely low standard.
So I looked at a lot of information about inconclusive MRIs of the knee. Sometimes, some damage can be hard to see with certain types of MRIs. I'm assuming the MRI that Dame had found nothing, that's what the information I found pointed to but Dame's other exams (like the Dr. manipulating his knee and feeling it or listening to it or doing stress tests) or Dame's pain is telling them that there is something wrong. So they likely did the MRI tonight without contrast and tomorrow they'll do one with contrast which provides a lot more detail. The stuff I read said that sometimes degenerative things won't show up on initial MRIs but that's not likely what's going on with Dame because it also said that things like very partial tears to ligaments or just fraying of ligaments or the same thing to the meniscus can go unnoticed by initial MRIs but then found by subsequent more detailed MRIs. Then there is the possibility that the additional MRI or MRIs find nothing. That's really unlikely with the technology they have now but it's possible. If that were to happen but Dame and the doctors really thought there was something going on, he could just end up having an exploratory arthroscopy to actually see what's going on in there. I looked all of this up but I've also had all of those things done, a regular MRI, an MRI with contrast and an exploratory arthroscopy. My surgery found a lot of debris from a number of injuries for me but that's not likely with Dame. He is functioning at a really high level and would know if something was going wrong whereas I had hurt my knee playing sports many times without treatment and had really fucked it up plus my first MRI was over 20 years ago and I know they've gotten better since then. Moral of the story is I think he has a slight tear or fraying of either his meniscus or a ligament or maybe he just has a bone bruise or he had a subluxation (slight dislocation of the kneecap). All of those injuries might be treated with an arthroscopic surgery, cortisone injection, some treatment/pt or just rest. I could be wrong but if a ligament was totally ruptured or even severely torn or his meniscus was severely torn then it would show up on any MRI because I don't think they would have tried the MRI if his swelling was significant enough to obscure the image (it's also my understanding that swelling from fluid/blood doesn't obscure the MRI, swollen tissue does)... but again I could be wrong. We'll likely know more about it in a matter of hours.
I just seriously doubt that. If they had already had problems with the machine with other players they either would not do the MRI on Dame or they would have replaced the machine. They're not going to have Dame lay in that loud ass machine for thirty minutes to two hours just to tell him, "Oh yeah man this machine hasn't been working for anyone else either but we thought we'd give it a shot with you anyway." That's absurd.
I already read that story about Doncic, you are neglecting the fact that his second MRI worked and there have been three players who have had MRIs without incident since. Either you are wrong about there being only one MRI machine in the bubble or they fixed the problem. They wouldn't have said Dame's MRI was inconclusive if it was a mechanical error, they would have said it was a mechanical error. An inconclusive MRI is a legitimate determination from a successful imaging. Read my post above for more info about what the term means.
Doesn't appear to be any. It matters if it's a tear and he's done for a year...
My guess is no matter the results he's not playing tomorrow. Why would they risk it...
Yeah here is a bright side take on this!
No news. That being said, of course it matters. I doubt it matters as far as tomorrows game is concerned but the health of Dame's right knee matters a lot to this franchise. He and surrounding him with players and a system that compliments him are the best chance the Blazers have at winning and I think winning is the point of playing the games. I honestly think that a Dame led Blazers team can win a championship.
You'd think down 40 you wouldn't risk it either....
The thing about Dame's injury is that it's not a recurring, degenerative, once in a generation situation like Roy's. The other thing about Dame's injury is that it definitely wasn't catastrophic because you don't play another two minutes on those. I'll be really surprised if it's a complete tear or rupture of anything but I wouldn't be surprised if it is something that needs arthroscopic surgery and a lot of rehab which would suck for Dame. I'm hoping it's just a sprain, bone contusion or pinched meniscus because all of those hurt really bad but go away with treatment and rest. Regardless of what it is I would be angry if the team lets him come back for game five.
