Hurt players missing shot at NBA awards

Let the record show that it’s very possible Victor Wembanyama essentially Jost this season’s defensive player of the year award in mid-November, ina game against the Golden State Warriors. And he was dominating that game too.

- By Tim REYNOLDS

But Wembanyama got hurt. Strained left calf. He'll be out for the next two or three weeks, at least, and that’s before he even gets reevaluated. That means he might miss 10 or more games. And just like that, his chances of getting to the 65-game threshold needed for consideration for most major NBA postseason awards are taking a major hit.

Nobody knows what the NBA award votes will look like next spring, when the latest batch of awards get handed out. But in some cases, it’s already getting easy to deduce who won't be on any of those ballots.