Ross rejoins team, then enters quarantine
Two days after leaving the NBA campus at Disney World, Orlando Magic shooting guard Terrence Ross has rejoined his teammates.
Ross returned to the NBA campus Tuesday after he left following Sunday’s 122-119 overtime loss to the Celtics because of a medical issue and is now in the league’s quarantine protocol, the team has announced.
NBA physicians advised Ross seek testing outside the bubble for a nonCOVID medical issue. Those tests were negative, according to the team.
Once he clears quarantine, Ross will available to play. Depending on test results, he could be cleared in as few as four days, according to NBA protocols. Still, even under the minimum quarantine timeline, Ross will miss Thursday’s final seeding game against the
Pelicans.
Magic coach Steve Clifford said Ross is in “really good shape” in terms of his playing condition and shouldn’t be affected much by missing games. Clifford sounded optimistic that Ross would be physically ready for the Magic’s firstround playoff series next week against the Bucks.
“He said he feels fine, feels good. Now we’re just waiting on word from the league on how long his quarantine will be,” Clifford said before Tuesday’s game against the Nets. “There’s still things he can do. He won’t de-condition that much. He had done a lot of work and he’s in really good shape.”
In addition to not having Ross for Tuesday’s game against the Nets, the Magic also were without Aaron Gordon (hamstring strain), Evan Fournier (nonCOVID illness) and Michael Carter-Williams (foot tendon strain).
The absence of Gordon, Ross and Fournier means the Magic played without three of their top four scorers.
Magic couldn’t get on track. They had more turnovers (nine) than assists (seven), were outscored 13-4 on fastbreak points and 24-18 on points in the paint.
Orlando also shot just 29.5% (13 of 44). At one point, the Nets had as many 3-point field goals as the Magic had total field goals (eight).
With the shooting woes and turnovers, the Magic struggled to put together any significant scoring runs. Their best efforts came when they scored the first six points of the game (on 3-pointers by Vucevic and Iwundu) and later fired off a 9-0 burst in the third quarter.
The spurt got Orlando within 65-53 after a putback by Vucevic, but the Nets quickly responded. A driving uncontested layup by Tyler Johnson pushed the Nets’ lead to 77-57 with 3 minutes, 25 seconds left in the quarter.
The Magic twice got within 11 but could get no closer the rest of the way.
Orlando will close out seeding play against the New Orleans Pelicans Thursday at 9 p.m. The game will air on Fox Sports Florida.
Thrasher said the school has done everything possible to make it safe for the players and coaches to prepare for the 2020 season, providing daily safety measures and frequent testing. He said the school has its own lab on campus that can process a COVID-19 test in less than 24 hours.
“That’s a huge advantage for us,” Thrasher said. “I think other schools are trying to do the same thing.”
The message Tuesday from Florida State and the state of Florida was clear.
“Discussions about shortcircuiting the entire season are entirely misplaced and I support Florida State continuing to play the season, as I do all the sports throughout the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “I think taking that away would do lasting damage.”