Any night glory appears, any night disaster appears. Both, like cruel lovers, marry many times in the same games, separated by moments, by plays. It is the law of sports, it is the lives of athletes and it is a crude maxim that closed on Ricky Rubio, and his exceptional season in Cleveland, in a game that started as a party for the Cavs and ended in a nightmare. Strange defeat (108-104) after receiving one of those comebacks that they had become used to starring in, and Ricky’s knee injury. Apparently serious. Cross our fingers.
With 2:20 left to go, and when the Pelicans had already completed a seemingly impossible comeback minutes earlier, Ricky fell close to the personnel line when he dribbled Devonte ‘Graham, which he missed. The Spanish point guard slipped and his left knee twisted into a very ugly posture in full fall. He left without supporting his leg, without putting any weight on his left foot, with clear gestures of pain and helped by his companions. Wait, but a serious mishap would be a terrible blow to a Ricky who had regained joy in the Cavs after the trades, the strange return to Minnesota and doubts about his future. Settled in his unexpected new home and grinning from ear to ear, he averaged 12.7 points and 6.5 assists and was being one of the key pieces, both on the court and in the locker room, in the Cavs’ monumental season. Ricky (31) is in the final year of the three-year contract he signed with the Suns ($ 51 million, $ 17.8 this season) and will be a free agent next summer.
The glory and the disaster. Headline for the absence of Darius Garland (in the COVID protocols that are hitting the Cavs on a good basis, like so many others), Ricky was playing a fabulous game (27 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists) although he was collapsing like the rest of his companions, absorbed as if the track of the Smoothie King Center was a black hole. The game had started with a party for the Cavs, who came to win by 23 (14-37) in a first quarter that closed 20-39. Ricky scored the game’s first seven points and 10 of the Cavs’ top 15. Then Kevin Love (he finished with 24 points and 7 triples) scored three triples in a row and made it 8-27 for the Cavs, who danced to their rival in the first game in which Love and Ricky started together since April 16, 2104, in Minnesota. Things of the pandemic (Jarrett Allen and Garland were not there) … and of life.
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Ricky Rubio will get an MRI on his left knee Wednesday, source tells ESPN. There’s obvious concern on the possible severity of the injury. Rubio has been a huge part of Cavs’ success story this season.
– Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 29, 2021
Evan Mobley, the great Rookie of the Year hopeful who returned after his time through the protocols, arrived in New Orleans at noon and played (22 points, 7 rebounds) against a Pelicans without Brandon Ingram or Jason Hart and shaken on the basis of good in the first quarter … but they ended up winning. It took a Little Miracle: Garrett Templet made five 3s in the fourth quarter (finished with 17 points), four in four minutes and went from 83-95 to eight minutes from the end to 102-97, now without Ricky. The labyrinth for the Cavs was total: they only added three free throws in seven minutes, and although they finished with two triples by Kevin Love, the victory flew with the final cold blood of Graham (18 + 5 + 5) and Jonas Valanciunas (15+ 10). The Pelicans, in their best moment of the season, are 13-22. At least and without a trace of Zion Williamson, they are rearing their heads. This time with very little production from Willy Hernangómez, who did not score and captured 3 rebounds in 6 minutes.
The Cavs are at 20-14. But the defeat was the least of it, this time: everything is pending of the tests on Ricky Rubio’s left knee. Bad omens in the absence of more news. A serious injury is always cruel, of course, but with Ricky it seems that now it would be especially so, right in this moment. But that’s how sport is, glory and disaster. It’s time to wait, and cross your fingers.
