Bargnani takes step backward
Andrea Bargnani said he felt “good” on Oct. 5 after he had sat out of the preseason opener for the Nets against Turkish club Fenerbahce Ulker, and after a precautionary MRI exam on his “tight” left hamstring had come back negative.
A week later, after participating in a partial practice for the first time since the injury, he again said positive things.
“Every day we’re doing more and more, and see how it feels,” Bargnani said. “We’re taking it daybyday, basically.
“I want to play every practice and in every game. I just have to be cautious until I can get back to 100 percent.”
But after having multiple days of partial practice this week — including not even being listed on the injury report Tuesday — Bargnani seemed to have a setback Saturday, going from participating in some of Friday’s practice to none of Saturday’s, and now seems certain to miss the final two preseason games for the Nets — Sunday against the 76ers in Brooklyn and Monday against the Celtics in Boston.
With the regular season opener now less than two weeks away, it’s becoming a question of whether Bargnani will be available when the Nets open their season against the Bulls in Brooklyn on Oct. 28.
It’s becoming an almost identical script for the 7foot Italian to what happened last season with the Knicks, when after injuring his right hamstring in the first preseason game of the season he missed 49 of the first 51 games of the season because of a combination of hamstring and calf injuries.
Bargnani is one of three injured bigs for the Nets. Willie Reed is out for the next 6to8 weeks because of surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb Friday, and Chris McCullough is indefinitely sidelined because of ongoing rehab from surgery to repair a torn ACL in his right knee back in February while still at Syracuse.
Though the news on Bargnani wasn’t good, the Nets got a better report on Donald Sloan, who went from partial participation Friday with a sore hamstring to full participation Saturday, putting him on course to potentially return to the court Sunday against Philadealphia.
Rookie Rondae HollisJefferson also participated fully in Saturday’s practice, the second straight day he’d done so, and also has a good chance of being available Sunday.