Evan Turner dribbles with his right hand, before the … unpleasantness. (Getty Images) After a rough start to his first season with the Portland Trail Blazers, Evan Turner has come on a bit of late, sliding into the starting lineup and generally looking more comfortable with his role on a Portland squad that has struggled to reclaim the form that made them a playoff team last year. Unfortunately for both Turner and the Blazers, though, that uptick got interrupted during Tuesday’s matchup with the Dallas Mavericks, as the veteran swingman suffered an injury to his shooting hand that could keep him out of the lineup for some time.
[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball contest now | Free NBA Yahoo Cup entry]
Turner appeared to injure the hand trying to work through a Harrison Barnes screen with 7:45 remaining in the third quarter:
This appears to be the play where Evan Turner fractured his right hand. Ran into Harrison Barnes' elbow on a screen. pic.twitter.com/eOnnZewqmd
— Dane Carbaugh (@danecarbaugh) February 8, 2017
He missed a 3-pointer on the Blazers’ next possession, clearly favoring the hand after the shot, and winced in pain after hitting it against Barnes’ chest on a defensive trip two minutes later … but, after a Wesley Matthews turnover landed right in Turner’s healthy left hand, he had no qualms about pushing the ball up the floor and running the break for an Al-Farouq Aminu layup:
Here's the moment Evan Turner fractured his right hand #RipCity #CSNBlazers pic.twitter.com/IuXs4EtijR
— CSN Northwest (@CSNNW) February 8, 2017
[Read & React Newsletter: 5 great stories from the Yahoo Sports blogs in your inbox every morning!]
That bucket led to a Mavericks timeout, at which point Turner checked out of the game. Shortly thereafter, word came down from the Blazers that his paw was busted:
Evan Turner (right hand fracture, third metacarpal) will not return to tonight's game in Dallas.
— Trail Blazers PR (@TrailBlazersPR) February 8, 2017
Turner wouldn’t return, finishing with 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting, four assists, two rebounds and three turnovers in 23 minutes. Following a wild finish that featured eight lead changes in the final 1:46 of regulation, Portland would score a 114-113 victory on a game-winning floater by C.J. McCollum with 0.3 seconds remaining.
After the game, Turner said he wasn’t totally sure how he actually broke the bone in his hand, but that he knew right away that something was wrong, according to Mike Richman of the Oregonian:
“All I remember is I was just chasing Devin Harris over a screen,” Turner said. “All I saw on film was just I ran into Harrison Barnes, I guess. I don’t know if it was his elbow in my back or whatever. I didn’t feel like crazy pain, like numbing a little bit. I just went back out there and I caught the ball when Dame passed it. I couldn’t feel any type of grip or anything like that. That was pretty much it.” […]
Turner said after the game that he was told “it didn’t look like [the bone] would” need surgical repair, though further testing would be needed to confirm the prognosis. A 2014 analysis by Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes found that return-to-play times for a third metacarpal fracture varied sharply among players in his database who hadn’t required surgery, ranging from four games (Paul Pierce, 2013) all the way up to 17 games (Marvin Williams, 2006). We should have a better grasp on the extent of the injury, and the expected duration of Turner’s stay on the shelf, come Wednesday.
[Follow Ball Don’t Lie on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tumblr]
Earlier this season, the prospect of missing Turner wouldn’t have seemed especially dire, as he struggled to find a comfort level whether sharing the floor with star guards Lillard and McCollum or acting as a ball-handler and playmaker off the bench. The light has started to come on, though. Turner’s field-goal percentage and production picked up after Christmas, and since head coach Terry Stotts’ decision late last month to slide him into the starting lineup, Turner had shown a bit more punch and playmaking panache, averaging 11.1 points, 4.3 assists and 2.8 rebounds in 30.7 minutes per game in the eight games since the move heading into Tuesday. Now, though, his burgeoning rhythm will be disrupted; the only questions are, for how long, and will the Blazers be able to ride out his absence well enough to stay in the chase for the West’s No. 8 playoff seed?

For his part, the eminently quotable and goofy Turner said after the game he wished only that the injury “had come with a better story,” according to Richman:
“It was just a janky injury,” he said after the game, with a brace covering his hand and most of his right forearm. “I would much rather have been going up for a dunk or something cool like that, not playing defense and chasing someone over a screen.”
Look on the bright side, Evan. At least you got to drop one last dime before hitting the injured list.
More NBA coverage:

– – – – – – –
Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
Follow @YourManDevine