Matthew Dellavedova has been the story of the series. He scored 20 points Tuesday, but more importantly continued to shut down Warriors counterpart and league MVP Stephen Curry.
The Q was rockin’ and all abuzz last night as the Cavs pulled out another win, pushing them to a 2 to 1 Finals lead.
What a ride! It’s unbelievable. I’d really love to just talk basketball, but unfortunately, Cavs injuries continue.
Last night, Matthew Dellavedova found himself at the Cleveland Clinic due to severe muscle cramps from dehydration and Iman Shumpert suffered a blow to his previously injured shoulder.
Today, I talked with 1590 WAKR morning show host Ray Horner about these players and the probability of their return on Thursday. It’s crucial. The Cavs are really getting down to the end of the bench.
Below is an audio file and transcript of our discussion.
HORNER: We’re gonna bring in our good friend, Dr. Joe Congeni, Sports Medicine Center at Akron Children’s Hospital, now. Joe, good morning to you. Go Cavs, huh!?
DR. CONGENI: Hey, Ray. Unbelievable. I mean, uh, this ride continues to go on, but I would like to just talk about basketball, instead of having to talk about Cavs’ injuries.
HORNER: [laughter]
Dr. Joe Congeni
DR. CONGENI: You know, I mean, the fact is this is gettin’ to be really, uh, very difficult for this team. They’re down to just about no bench at all.
HORNER: Yeah. Hey, I wanted to open it up by talking about Dellavedova. He goes to the Cleveland Clinic last night, dehydration, IVs and such. You know, we’re looking at late Tuesday night, early Wednesday morning, should he be okay for Thursday?
DR. CONGENI: I think he’ll probably be okay for Thursday. We do see these quite a bit, uh, at the end of the summer, uh, early in the football season. Down in the South they routinely give IVs in the locker room.
But, the fact they had to bring him to the hospital does concern me. The IVs that they gave him in the locker room at the Q was not enough apparently, they needed to bring him to the Cleveland Clinic.
They use IVs to rehydrate them. Occasionally, they’ll put muscle-relaxant medicine in the IVs too, and so it is a big question whether he’ll be ready to bounce back for Thursday night.
HORNER: Yeah, okay, I didn’t realize that. So, they can do a lot of this stuff right there at the Q, but they felt the need to go to the hospital and that’s why you have a rising concern.
DR. CONGENI: Yeah, the fact that they didn’t break it totally at the, uh, Q is a little bit of a concern to me. That’s exactly how these are treated. … In fact, sometimes in the South they’ll have the whole offensive line waiting to have IVs at halftime sometimes. That’s the best and most rapid way to rehydrate the body, unfortunately, when just drinking is not enough.
So, yeah, that’s a little bit of a red flag and cause for concern, and then you look over and there’s some cause for concern with Shump, too.
HORNER: Yeah, he gets banged in the shoulder, obviously in some pain [and then] comes back out, has a compression shirt on. What do you know about that injury at this point?
DR. CONGENI: Well, you know that when he came to us in January, he was supposed to be the one that was gonna step directly into the, uh, 2-spot role, but he was coming off a shoulder dislocation from when he was with the Knicks.
It turned out to be about 3 or 4 weeks here before he was able to work his way into the lineup, if you remember correctly. And I’m … pretty sure that was the shoulder that we’re talking about, and he took a big hit on that shoulder again.
… Remember there are degrees of how bad that dislocation was. Kevin Love’s was to such a degree with, uh, tearing of all the ligament and cartilage in his shoulder that they just had it fixed immediately.
But, a lot of people when they have a more, uh, of a lesser subluxation dislocation, they will rehab it for 6 weeks, strengthen it up. And, we haven’t seen any sign of any problem for Shump for, you know, a couple of months now, so that’s good news, but then he hits the pick last night. He struggles.
I kinda watched him the rest of the game with the left shoulder and he was kinda rebounding [with] one arm. He really wasn’t running hard off the screens anymore and that’s a big thing of Shump. He’s our main perimeter defender. He’s gotta get over those big, hard screens from Green and Bogut.
So, uh, you know, if Shump has a significant problem with that shoulder, where do the Cavs go from there? But, I think it’s a reoccurrence of what we call shoulder instability probably from the original injury that he had in January.
HORNER: Joe, is it the type of injury that you get knocked the night before and then maybe the day after it’s more sore and worse. How does that type of injury work?
DR. CONGENI: It’s more sore, but the key will be how his strength comes back. So, when they check him today, if he has his strength and stability, that’ll be good. And he’ll, you know, try and play in a compression sleeve and they’ll do all they can to get any of the swelling out of that shoulder, as well.
Um … I saw some tweets and texts and things going around last night about can you shoot it up? But it’s not a pain injury; it’s a function.
If it’s loose and weak, it’s very hard to play basketball. And I really think last night, I didn’t hear much of the post game, but I really think that he was playing somewhat compromised in the second half when he came back.
And, a lot of the things he needs to do as our star defender, as our perimeter defender, are tough on a shoulder the way it was last night. And if he takes another big hit, a more significant one where he can’t come back from, uh, wow, this team is getting down to the end of the, uh, bench.
HORNER: Well, luckily, hopefully, this season has less than a week to go if everything goes the way we want it to. [laughter]
DR. CONGENI: That’s funny. [laughter] Two more.
HORNER: Hey, Joe, good insight this morning, my friend. Thank you very much.
DR. CONGENI: Thanks, Ray. Have a great week.
HORNER: You too. Dr. Joe Congeni, Sports Medicine Center at Akron Children’s Hospital.
Originally aired on 1590 WAKR-AM on June 10, 2015
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