Shane Battier has Sprained Knee

On Monday, the Miami Heat announced that starting forward Shane Battier will be sidelined for a few games after suffering a sprained knee ligament in his right knee.

The injury occurred in the third quarter of the Heat’s 110-108 road victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night. Battier fell and landed awkwardly after a teammate fell into him, which caused the 11-year veteran to hobble off of the court and then head directly back to the Miami locker room.

Battier missed 14 games during the 2009-10 season while playing with the Houston Rockets due to a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee.

Following the team’s practice on Monday afternoon, Battier said, “I’m sore, but overall, I feel pretty good. I think it could have been a lot worse than it was. I’ve sprained an MCL before, so I knew what it felt like. I knew exactly what it was. It wasn’t as severe this time.”

When asked about Battier’s injury, head coach Erik Spoelstra had the following to say: “Other guys will have to step up in those intangible categories. It’ll come down to who will replace all of those little things that (Battier) does arguably as well as anybody in this league. I’m an optimistic guy. All I know is I’ll have a lot of anxiety if Shane doesn’t play. I hope we don’t have to find out how much we’d miss him.”

So far this season, Battier is averaging seven points and 2.5 rebounds per game while shooting 44.8 percent from three point range.