Candace Buckner

In front of his locker stall, CJ Miles pulled on his ripped stonewashed jeans, Schott leather jacket and desert tan high tops. He wore the look of a put together man. But after the Indiana Pacers' 108-87 loss to the Denver Nuggets Friday night, when he only played four minutes before aggravating a previous calf strain, Miles wore the countenance of a frustrated player.

"I don't know how to put it but it's tough right now. It's probably the toughest since I've been in the league," Miles said quietly.

Miles, a 10-year veteran, intended to return to the lineup against the Nuggets but did not play again after the injury interrupted his short stint in the first quarter. It's the latest setback in Miles' bumpy beginning as Pacer, which has included an early season shooting slump, and as he revealed after the game, a devitalizing illness that knocked out him last week.

Listed with the puzzling ailment of "migraine symptoms," Miles missed four straight games. In Miami on Wednesday, when Pacers coach Frank Vogel was asked to explain the symptoms, he said: "I'm not going to get into the symptoms, but he's still not ready." However on Friday, Miles pulled back some of the veil of his recent sickness, revealing that he battled against something more than throbbing headaches.

"It started off as a migraine, it's just I had other complications that kinda made it worse, I got a little sick. But it wasn't so much a migraine the reason I was sitting out. I think that was kinda the perception, people think I'm (not) playing (because of) a headache," Miles said.

Though Miles experienced a migraine prior to the Nov. 7 road game against the Boston Celtics - he laid in a quiet space with a towel over his head away from the visitor's locker room - later, the condition worsened.

"The first day there was no way I could've played just because the migraine makes you sensitive to light, throws you off," Miles said. "Then my headaches started to subside, but I just had, like I said, some other stuff just kinda trickled down. My body kinda fell apart on me for a few days."

"I had a couple of things that happened," offered Miles, who said he visited a doctor. "I'm fine now. Besides my calf."

During the Pacers preseason and even last year while with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miles had the same right calf sprain injury. He felt the calf tighten while trying to make defensive plays and sat down before "I would have to be carried off the floor." Miles said the pain did not feel as intense as the previous time, when it became difficult to walk. Still, he will be listed as questionable for tonight's game against the Chicago Bulls, with all likeliness he won't play.

"I'm not looking at it like I'm going to be out two to three weeks, I don't feel anything like that," Miles said. "I'm just going to work on it and try to get it fixed and hopefully in the next couple days, make another comeback."

Miles smiled faintly and rolled his eyes.

Through his short time with the Pacers, Miles has quickly become a go-to guy once the locker room doors open, generously offering his time and insight to reporters with a natural smile. Always quick with a laugh. But on this night, Miles sat alone, a drained expression on his face and frustrated emotion rising to surface in his voice. The smile and laugh didn't come so easy. On the way to Chicago, Miles posted the above Instagram update, revealing his state of mind.

Miles was 0-and-2 on Friday, dropping his season shooting average to 24.6 percent. Though Miles has a career 34.6% percentage as a 3-point shooter, he's made only 16.7 percent in his six appearances with the Pacers. He's not blaming the various ailments on his shooting struggles.

"I felt pretty healthy at the start of the season, actually," Miles said. " (The injuries) are just not helping me. That's all. I've never been a guy to ever put anything on the way I'm playing. If I'm playing like (sh--), I'm playing like (sh--). I'm going to fix it. I've done it before, been in a slump before. The frustrating thing for me is not being able to be on the court. I know I've been in a slump like personally, individually, you'll get through those. I went through it in Cleveland and figured it out and played well the next year and a half.

"The thing that's frustrating to me is you want to be able to help the dudes, the guys standing beside you," Miles said. "You want to gain the trust of them and of the coaches, and everybody. You want to do what you do, what they brought you here for. That's the thing that makes me the most upset. The thing that frustrates me the most is that I'm not doing right now what I do."



