Gary Neal Lacerated His Finger While Zipping Up a Luggage Bag

San Antonio Spurs reserve guard is the not-so-proud owner of the latest bizarre NBA injury – Neal lacerated his right index finger while closing up a piece of luggage, and was forced to sit out a couple of games. He’s been medically cleared to hoop again. Reports the Express-News: “Neal had just enjoyed the best game of his NBA career, pouring in 27 points to spark a comeback victory over Portland, when fate intervened with a place in the annals of bizarre sports injuries — a gashed finger incurred while zipping up a piece of luggage prior to last week’s Lakers game at Staples Center. ‘It’s bad luck, right?,’ said Neal, who is averaging a career-high 10.1 points on 63.6 percent true shooting. ‘I was zipping up my bag, and I ripped it across the zipper and it just pulled the skin off. It was bad luck. Sometimes things happen.’ Neal played sparingly that night, but was forced to sit against New York and Denver in order to let the half-inch laceration to heal. He said he probably would have returned earlier had it not been for the wound’s location, directly across the first joint on his index finger. ‘If it wasn’t the last finger that you touch when you dribble or shoot, you would just put some tape on it and play,’ he said. ‘But being that it was right in the joint, and it was on that finger, you couldn’t tape it and you couldn’t let the ball continue to hit it and catch passes like that. We just had to wait for the skin to toughen up.’”