Barkley Out Of Playoffs With Injury
Charles Barkley, who played with a hernia this season, will miss the rest of the playoffs after an MRI revealed Saturday that he tore his right tricep muscle during Friday night's playoff loss to the Utah Jazz.
"He's done for the playoffs," said team spokesman Tim Frank."He'll be re-evaluated (Sunday), but he could see surgery as early as Monday."
Barkley's participation in the playoffs was in doubt from the beginning of the first-round series because of the hernia that slowed him all season. But it was his collision with Utah's Greg Foster that ended his season.
Barkley and Foster became entangled with 8:39 to play in the first half of Friday night's 93-71 Utah victory that evened the best-of-5 series at 2-2. The deciding game is scheduled for Sunday in Salt Lake City.
Trainers applied ice to Barkley's elbow and he tried twice to return to the game, but did not have a full range of motion in his arm.
Barkley said after Friday's game that team doctors were telling him "it would take a miracle" for him to play in Sunday's series finale, even before the muscle tear was diagnosed.
The hernia had scratched Barkley from the last three regular season games and he publicly worried whether he could contribute in the Jazz series. Despite admitted soreness, he had 12 points and six rebounds in Houston's 103-90 Game 1 upset.
He played in 68 of 82 games during the regular season.
Barkley, who has played off the bench in the second half of the regular season, gave the Rockets a spark when he entered Friday's game late in the first quarter.
His loss will mean more playing time for Othella Harrington in Game 5 on Sunday and a heavier work load for Hakeem Olajuwon and Kevin Willis.
The Rockets started strong in Game 4 but after Barkley left the game, Houston relief on Olajuwon and the starters tired down the stretch. Olajuwon played 39 minutes and Willis played 43 minutes on Friday.
"A huge loss," Mario Elie said. "You could see the energy he brought into the game off the bench."
Clyde Drexler pointed to Barkley's injury as a key to their loss.
"We seemed to be in command of the game but with Charles out, we had no punch on our bench. Hakeem and Kevin had to play extended minutes and we also seemed to lose a lot of our energy. We were up by five and the next thing we knew, we seemed to run out of gas."
Harrington hopes to pick up some of the slack.
"I'll go out and try to do what I always do on Sunday, play defense and get as many rebounds as I can," Harrington said."It's going to be up to all of us to just do a little more."
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