Oklahoma City centre Enes Kanter had surgery Friday and will be out at least a month after fracturing his right forearm by punching a chair during a win over the Dallas Mavericks.
The team said Kanter will be re-evaluated in four weeks.
Kanter is one of the NBA’s top reserves and is the Thunder’s third-leading scorer at 14.4 points per game. He finished third in balloting for the league’s top sixth man last season, and his scoring average is up this season. He has 12 double-doubles, is shooting 56 per cent from the field and averages 6.7 rebounds per contest.
"It was tough, man," Thunder guard Russell Westbrook said after Thursday’s game. "To do it the way he did it is very unfortunate. He’s a strong man, and he’ll be back better."
Thunder centre Steven Adams said it was an unfortunate accident.
"He didn’t mean to do it, obviously," Adams said. "It’s just one of those frustrating times where it just happened to like — he did what he did, you know. He’s already hard on himself. No one else can be as hard as he is on himself. He’s probably just feeling so under the weather. I feel bad for him."
[relatedlinks]
