Jannelle Moore on the Warriors: Handling of Klay’s knee worth watching
The Golden State Warriors are proceeding with caution with Klay Thompson
as he returns from two major leg injuries
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 25: Golden State Warriors’ Klay
Thompson #11 ices his knees as he sits on the bench in the second
quarter of their NBA game against the Dallas Mavericks at the Chase
Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. (Jane
Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 25: Golden State Warriors’ Klay
Thompson #11 ices his knees as he sits on the bench in the second
quarter of their NBA game against the Dallas Mavericks at the Chase
Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. (Jane
Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
By JANNELLE MOORE |
PUBLISHED: January 26, 2022 at 5:38 p.m. | UPDATED: January 27, 2022 at
8:14 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/01/26/jannelle-moore-on-the-warriors-handling-of-klays-knee-worth-watching/

SAN FRANCISCO — One little knee ‘tweak’ could’ve changed everything for
Klay Thompson and the Golden State Warriors.

Hours before Sunday’s tip-off against the Utah Jazz, Thompson just had a
run through and was planning on playing until Warriors Director of
Sports Medicine and Performance Rick Celebrini noticed the way Thompson
was moving and suggested otherwise. Celebrini thought Thompson should
sit, and relayed his concerns to Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.

“I didn’t realize that anything was wrong and Rick said that it would be
best to hold him out because he has a tweak in the knee,” Kerr said
prior to the game.

Since the soreness is inhis surgically repaired knee, the Warriors
thought it would be wise to sit Thompson for Utah and sit him out of
practice Monday to give the knee time to rest and for the pain to subside.

Before Tuesday’s game against the Mavericks, Thompsons’ status was
upgraded from questionable to available and starting. While the soreness
in Thompson’s hyperextended knee subsided enough for him to play, should
the Warriors be concerned now?

Thompson had knee surgery to repair his torn ACL in July of 2019. While
in rehab, Thompson ruptured his Achilles and had surgery in November,
2020. In the 941 days Thompson was sidelined before his emotional return
two weeks ago, the on-court work was limited. You can run, cut, and
plant to test the strength of the knee but the true test is in an actual
game, and rehab can’t properly simulate or replicate the experience of a
game. According to UCSF Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and
95.7 The Game Injury Insider, Dr. Nirav Pandya, soreness months after
surgery is common.

“I think just given the time that he’s been away from the game, it’s
very common for the joint whether you had surgery on it or another area
to get sore. Just because it’s hard to really reproduce what it’s like
in a game in practice or rehab,” Pandaya said. “A lot of athletes coming
back from these major injuries will have some degree of soreness or kind
of tweaks and things like that. I think the thing you always get worried
about though is ‘could there always be a risk of a structural injury
inside that knee?’ But in general, when athletes are away for that long
period of time, you can see soreness but you get concerned because it’s
on the same side as where he had surgery before.”

Pandaya believes that the Warriors are taking the smart approach with
Thompson. The Warriors holding him out of those two games may be best in
the bigger picture of the remainder of the season and playoffs.

“It’s better to be safe for two reasons. One is it gives you the time if
it is just soreness to let it resolve because any athlete who has gotten
soreness you don’t want them to have pain,” he says.

“I think secondly, if one of the things they are probably looking at is
to check is this soreness happening because Klay is doing something
abnormal in terms of his running or jumping. Is he moving in a kind of
way that’s causing him to put more pressure on that area? So you want to
nip those things in the bud pretty early because he has several games to
play.

“And the third thing, I think the most important thing people are
worried about is in any knee that’s had a prior surgery like an ACL, you
take those complaints very seriously. You want to make sure there’s not
some sort of cartilage damage, some sort of meniscus damage, or anything
else. So, I think it’s important from all three of those fronts
particularly given his age, and how long he’s been away, and how
important he is to the team.”

At this point, Thompson missing two games for this issue is the Warriors
being cautious and not running the risk of further injury. However, if
soreness is an ongoing issue, here are some signs that there could be
something deeper going on.

– Knee stiffness

– Pain with rest

– Swelling

In Thompson’s return, the Warriors have been monitoring and restricting
his minutes. Averaging between 18-24 minutes per game, Thompson played a
season-high of 25 minutes in Tuesday night’s 130-92 annihilation of the
Mavericks.

If this knee continues to flare up and tweak, what are the Warriors
looking at in terms of treatment and management? Due to the fact that
Thompson said that the knee was hyperextended, Pandya’s level of concern
was heightened.

“That does raise my concern a little bit more of ‘okay he felt fine but
was there any kind of damage or any kind of irritation that was done at
that point?’ So if it were to come back, I’d worry a little bit more
about did that hyperextension cause him? Was there something else that
happened at that time that’s going to be a recurring issue.”

If this will be a lingering issue, Pandya suggests modification.

“Assuming that he’s not causing any damage and just has an irritated
knee, it is to limit the minutes. If he’s playing 26 and his knees are
sore, do you do things like ‘look, you are going to play 20 this next
game or you’re going to sit out this next game.’ I think they are
already doing it with him not playing back-to-backs, which is key. But
it may mean that if it’s not back-to-backs and it reappears, are you
then saying ‘look, this is four-game road trip and we are going to have
you only playing one game.’ So I would assume barring any structural
damage and this keeps popping up, it’s going to have him taking more
stretches out to deal with that soreness.”

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If this is a trend and Thompson will miss stretches because of a
lingering concern, getting an MRI for further examination is likely.
For Pandya, Thompson’s threshold should dictate any treatments and
modifications

“I think a lot of it has to do with what’s he saying hurts. Is it
hurting in an area that’s giving you a little more concern? Is there a
lot of pain and swelling, and that’s when you start getting concerned
that something else may be going on. It’s not just ‘Klay hasn’t played
in 941 days and he’s just sore because he hasn’t really had a chance to
get his legs underneath him.’ ”

Thompson’s knee responded well after two-days rest and he was able to
play 25 minutes Tuesday. The Warriors had no practice Wednesday, so
that’s a day of rest. While the Warriors are being as cautious as they
can with Thompson’s knee, this could be something worth monitoring as
the season progresses.

--
Jannelle Moore | Guest Analyst