Larry Nance Jr. is having a solid season as a veteran starter for a feisty young Cavaliers team looking to get into the East’s play-in series. Now the Cavaliers will have to do it without him for the next month and a half.
Nance suffered a fractured fourth metacarpal on his left hand against the Bucks on Saturday night, the team has announced. This will sideline him for about six weeks.
This is what is commonly known as a “boxers’ fracture,” and we have seen plenty of it around the NBA. Nance fractured the long bone that connects his wrist to his ring finger on his left hand. The recovery time is generally 5-6 weeks.
Larry Nance Jr. joins a long list of players to suffer a 4th metacarpal fracture including, Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, Gordon Hayward, and Pau Gasol. The average missed time for this type of injury is ~37 days or 16 games.
— Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) February 7, 2021
Nance is averaging 9.3 points and 6.8 rebounds a game for the Cavaliers, but more importantly providing quality defense at the four. Cleveland’s defense is 5.6 points per 100 possessions better when Nance is on the court this season, and while there is noise in that stat it shows his impact.
Cleveland is still without Kevin Love at the four. This will mean more run for Taurean Prince and maybe Cedi Osman. Since coming from Brooklyn as part of the four-team James Harden trade, Prince has played surprisingly well for the Cavaliers, averaging 9.9 points a night and shooting 44.7% from three.
