The NBA preseason is only a week old, and two stars — one old, one young — have already suffered injuries, although neither appear to be serious. Clipper forward Blake Griffin has a bone bruise after an MRI revealed no damage, and Steve Nash left the Lakers – Kings game after just 9 minutes with soreness in his left ankle. The NBA Gods are not listening to us.
During Wednesday’s scrimmage, Clipper coach Doc Rivers says Blake Griffin “tweaked” his left knee. After undergoing an MRI test, no structural damage was revealed the Orange County Register reports.
Griffin suffered the injury on the last play of an intra-squad scrimmage. He was attempting a game-tying dunk over teammate Louis Amundson and ended up missing both free throws in the scrimmage. Why in the hell is Amundson fouling franchise cornerstone Blake Griffin — just let him dunk!?
Meanwhile, fellow Los Angeleno import, Steve Nash sat out the majority of last night’s 104-86 Lakers loss to the Sacramento Kings in their preseason matchup. His left ankle — which had been causing him discomfort during training camp was sore.
Head coach Mike D’Antoni says the decision to rest Nash the rest of the game could be something that happens a lot this season. The 39-year-old Nash is attempting to lead a team bereft of Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant — for the time being, at least — in their attempt to rebound from last season’s disappointing first round playoff exit. But he doesn’t appear healthy enough to play major minute this season as D’Antoni told ESPN Los Angeles’ Dave McMenamin.
“I’m not concerned,” D’Antoni said after Nash’s blink-and-you-missed-it run. “I think this will happen off and on all year, but he’s going to give you a good season and good stuff. We have to take care of him.”
When told of D’Antoni’s comments yesterday, Nash informed McMenamin:
“We’ll see. I’m hoping. Because [the ankle] has gotten better. At the start of camp, it wasn’t very good at all, and through camp it did improve. I think [Thursday] was more of an unfortunate day than a real problem. It could linger, but I don’t expect that to be the case. I’m hoping that through this month we can try to put it behind me. It’s kind of a little bit of a dance because I need this time to prepare, but at the same time, you obviously don’t want to pound the ankle to where I’m not able to function.”
The Lakers are flying to China today for two exhibitions against the Warriors next week, and D’Antoni said Nash should be ready to go in those contests.
Which injury is worse news for the player’s team?
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