DeMarre Carroll suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury during the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals Wednesday against the Cavaliers, but the team is only terming it a sprain for now.
Carroll was driving to the basket and picked up his dribble as he headed to the hoop with about four minutes left in the game. It’s unclear whether he hurt his knee when he planted or tried to explode off of it, or when LeBron bumped into him, but he went down and it looked really bad.
Carroll had to be helped to the locker room:
Tough watching #Hawks DeMarre Carroll being helped to the locker room. Can't put any weight on it at all. pic.twitter.com/7LyZszRTKn
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) May 21, 2015
Carroll is an underrated player and probably has been the most valuable player for Atlanta during the postseason. Not only would an injury to him hurt their chances of beating the Cavs, but it also could be devastating to Carroll’s future earnings; he will be an unrestricted free agent after the season.
This graphic shows how valuable Carroll has been for the Hawks this postseason:
DeMarre Carroll has been key to the Hawks’ postseason run pic.twitter.com/lQpWW8KSWJ
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 20, 2015
LeBron, who scored 31 points in the win, showed some nice sportsmanship after seeing Carroll get hurt:
Carroll will have an MRI Thursday.
