No broken ankle for Isaac
SAN FRANCISCO — feels relieved. The right-ankle injury he suffered Saturday night in the fourth quarter of the Orlando Magic’s loss to the Denver Nuggets isn’t as serious as it could’ve been.
X-rays taken Saturday night showed he has no fracture, Isaac and Magic coach
said. “I was definitely scared for a second,” Isaac said. “But once kind of the smoke cleared, I knew I was going to be OK. I’m just glad that nothing’s broken.”
Isaac suffered the injury when he blocked a shot by
and then rolled his ankle upon landing.
Team officials have listed Isaac as out for tonight’s game against the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena.
Isaac, a rookie forward, learns a bit more about professional basketball with each game he plays.
On Friday, he played 21 minutes in the Magic’s 128-112 win in Phoenix.
On Saturday, he played 16 minutes in the 125-107 loss in Denver before his ankle injury forced him to go to the locker room.
“Honestly, this is the first back-to-back where I could sense a fatigue in a way,” the 20-year-old said. “I definitely felt just before the game, ‘I can get myself going, but I don’t feel all the way there.’ The altitude is crazy here, and it’s my first time playing [in it]. There’s just a lot of factors. But we definitely could have come out with more juice and more effort.”
Injuries already have become a central theme to the Magic’s season. Point guard
is still recovering from the strained left hamstring he suffered on Nov. 1, and now Isaac’s right ankle is an issue.
tender left hamstring remains a concern. It’s the same injury that kept him out of eight straight games from Oct. 21-Nov. 5.
The team held Payton out in Denver for precautionary reasons.
Payton wanted to play against the Nuggets, but team officials were worried that playing on the second night of a back-to-back could aggravate his hamstring.
Asked if he thought the team made the right decision, Payton answered, “They don’t pay me to make those decisions. I trust them, so that’s what I’m rolling with.”
The Magic have posted a 3-1 record in games Payton has started and a 5-1 record in games Augustin has started.
But the Magic are 0-3 in games Payton and Augustin have missed simultaneously, falling in routs to the Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics and Nuggets.
“That’s the third time now that we lose by 20, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we have D.J. and E.P. out,” swingman
said after 125-107 loss in Denver.
“Obviously, it changes a lot for us. It changes
coming off the bench. It changes a lot of things. But the bottom line is we started flat, [with] kind of a lack of intensity, and they started off great. They picked us apart.”
Unless he suffers an unforeseen setback, Payton the seems likely to play against the Warriors even though team officials have listed him as questionable. man led all Magic players in scoring in Denver, pouring in 19 points in 18 minutes off the bench. Speights made eight of his 12 shot attempts, including three of his seven shots from beyond the arc. Big
The G-League’s Lakeland Magic defeated the Erie Bayhawks 97-95 Sunday at RP Funding Center.
scored 18 points on 5-of-16 shooting, and added 13 points, collected 10 rebounds, dished out three assists and blocked two shots.
With the victory, Lakeland improved to 3-1.