Atlanta Dream star Rhyne Howard hyperextended her left knee in Friday\u2019s road game against the Indiana Fever and will be sidelined for the remainder of July, the Dream announced Monday.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old is expected to make a full recovery, the Dream said in a statement, though they did not provide a specific date for when she will return. Howard did not play in Atlanta\u2019s road loss to the New York Liberty on Sunday and will miss at least the next six games to end the month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to have to be more than one person (who steps up with her out),\u201d Dream coach Karl Smesko said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna miss (Howard), obviously, an All-Star, one of the best players in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dream are 12-9, three wins shy of tying their win total from last season. They were in fifth place in the WNBA standings entering Monday night\u2019s games.<\/p>\n
Howard, who is averaging 16.5 points, 4.5 assists and 5.0 rebounds this season, recently earned her third All-Star selection. However, since she will not participate in the All-Star Game on Saturday night in Indianapolis, the league will likely name a replacement. Howard\u2019s teammate, center Brionna Jones, should be on the short list of injury replacement candidates.<\/p>\n
Howard\u2019s injury occurred in the second quarter of the Dream\u2019s loss to the Fever. After Fever star Caitlin Clark shot a deep 3-pointer early in the frame, Howard tried to chase down the rebound, but after she jumped to grab the ball, she planted awkwardly on her left leg as she returned to the floor and immediately went down in pain.<\/p>\n
The Dream eventually gained possession on a Brittney Griner rebound, but Howard remained on the ground as she clutched her left knee. The Dream called a timeout to check on Howard, who tried to walk off under her own power, though she couldn\u2019t continue after taking a few steps. Two Dream staffers carried Howard back to the locker room. She returned to the court with a brace and started the third quarter. Howard drilled three 3s in the period and finished with 14 points in 25 minutes, but she was visibly limping in the second half.<\/p>\n
Howard, the 2022 No. 1 pick, has been an essential part of the Dream\u2019s strong season. Her 56 3-pointers were a league high entering Monday night\u2019s contests. Maya Caldwell started in place of Howard in Sunday\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n
\u2014 The Athletic<\/strong>\u2019s Ben Pickman contributed to this report.<\/strong><\/p>\n (Photo: Paras Griffin \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta Dream star Rhyne Howard hyperextended her left knee in Friday\u2019s road game against the Indiana Fever and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":66047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1503,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-66046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-atlanta-dream","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}