Allen Crabbe missed a seventh straight game with the Nets’ wild 134-132 double-overtime victory over the Hornets on Wednesday with a right-knee injury he hoped might cost just one or two, and Rodions Kurucs has been red-hot in his absence.
But the Nets wing at least is back on the court after finally getting through a full workout and hopes to play soon.
“The pain was not as bad as it was last week so keep progressing day by day,” Crabbe said. “Just monitoring it see how it feels. [Wednesday] was the most I’ve done in a while. For the most part I feel good.… It felt good to get back on the court. So we’re just playing it day by day, seeing how I progress.
“I had some pain, but it was bearable pain to actually get through the whole actual workout. Previous days it was doing a few things and we were just shutting it down early. I got through the whole thing, did some running after, so we’re headed in the right direction.”
Crabbe hasn’t played since a 20-point outing on Dec. 12 in Philadelphia. But according to coach Kenny Atkinson, Crabbe is essentially healthy and now just needs work to regain his sharpness.
“The progression, three-on-three, five-on-five before I actually step into a game setting. But it looks like that’s what the next progression is and just see how I feel after that,” Crabbe said.
“He worked out. He’s pretty much healthy and now we’ve just got to get him some three-on-three time, scrimmage time,” Atkinson said. “Unfortunately we’re not practicing a ton, so as soon as he gets his game rhythm back we’ll throw him back in there. I’m not going to give exactly when. We’ve got to see how that progresses. [He’s] healthy, but needs be in a return to play protocol. I don’t think it’ll be very long.”
After a slow start to the season, Crabbe had actually averaged a dozen points and scalding 46.5 percent shooting from 3-point range in 13 starts after fighting his way back into the lineup. Now he’ll face a tall order trying to wrest a starting spot back from Kurucs, who had 13 points, 12 boards and three steals on Wednesday.
Small wonder he’s in a hurry to get back.
“As soon as possible at this point,” Crabbe said. “At first I was thinking it was only going to be two games, hopefully one. But it’s turned into four, five. It’s just unfortunate we had a week with four games in one week so I had to miss the whole [stretch].
“But I’d rather take care of it now. It’s still early. We’re not even halfway through the season yet. So I’d rather get it taken care of then it come back lingering around like February, March.”
Atkinson said of Kurucs “He’s getting our confidence big time. He played 39 minutes, hit a huge corner 3, had a big rebound in the first overtime. You talk about surprises; that’s out of nowhere. That’s a guy that was hardly playing in Europe and now he’s playing 39 minutes. That’s pretty close to shocking if you think about it.”
