The Sixers have been battling injuries all season, but seeing two players hit the ground in a collision and remain on the floor was jarring.
During the third quarter of the Sixers' 95-89 win over the Nets (see Instant Replay), Jerami Grant fell while attempting to swat the ball from Donald Sloan at the basket. Grant kicked Robert Covington in the head and neck as he crashed to the ground.
Grant walked off the court with the team’s trainer and was being evaluated for a concussion. Covington was taken out on a stretcher and brought to Jefferson Hospital to be evaluated for a possible neck injury, which Brett Brown described as “precautionary stuff.”
“When you see a player, a teammate, a friend being taken off the court in a stretcher, it’s different than somebody walking off the court with a sprained ankle,” Brown said.
Covington’s close friend Isaiah Canaan stood nearby as the medical staff attended to him. Other Sixers stood further away, keeping their eyes intently zoned in on their injured teammate as he was lifted onto the stretcher.
“[You have] concern about are they OK?” Ish Smith said. “First and foremost, you just pray that everything’s OK, that they’re alright and that it's not as severe as I guess it kind of looked.”
Seeing the injuries unfold struck a chord with Richaun Holmes. The rookie is still going through his first experiences in the NBA and the sight of Covington on the stretcher rattled him. Catching him give the crowd a thumb’s up gave Holmes a peace of mind.
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“That’s our brother, that’s our teammate,” Holmes said. “You know he’s going to be OK, but you never want to see anything like that, especially somebody you’re so close with. It’s scary. … At the end of the day you’ve still got to play so that’s the tough part, when somebody goes down like that, having to go back out there and play. That’s pretty tough mentally.”
Holmes also had an injury worry himself. He strained his right Achilles in the third and began feeling pain when he turned around to run down the court. Holmes left the game and did not return. Given the lack of contact with another player, he was concerned at first but would like to play Saturday against the Pistons.
"I was trying to stay out there. We already had too many injuries," Holmes said. "I hope [that I can play]. Can’t really say. I’m going to work with the trainers. We’ll see."
When it came time to push through the absence of three players to in-game injuries, the Sixers rallied together.
“We dug down deep," Nerlens Noel said. "We lost a little perimeter shooting and athleticism on the defensive end, so we had to figure it out. ... Guys came in and did what they had to do.”