John Wall has officially been ruled out of Game 3 vs. the Hawks on Saturday, head coach Randy Wittman confirmed to reporters less than two hours before tip-off during his customary media availability.
Although the team had yet to make a determination on his status until now, this shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise.
Once it was revealed that Wall had five non-displaced fractures in his left wrist following an injury he suffered in Washington’s Game 1 victory, it was safe to assume Wall would continue to miss some time. What kept the team from making a sweeping statement that he’d miss the remainder of the postseason was the fact that the injury is to Wall’s non-shooting hand, and the thinking was that if the swelling could subside to the point where he could dribble and grip the ball effectively, he might try to play through the discomfort.
It’s obviously not to that point just yet, and that’s going to hurt the Wizards’ chances in this series somewhat significantly.
The key stat that tells you just how important Wall has been to his team in these playoffs is points created by assists per game. Wall leads all players in this category with an average of 30.8, while the next person on the list (Blake Griffin) averages just 18.8 to come in a very distant second.