ORLANDO, Fla. — When Billy King heard Nets center Brook Lopez was going to get an X-ray on his right foot, he couldn’t help but think back to last Dec. 21 at Madison Square Garden.
“I remember when [athletic trainer] Timmy [Walsh] told me when [Lopez] first fractured it in the Knicks game in the preseason, and he said, ‘We’ll do X-rays as a precaution.’ Then I remember the doctor from the Knicks coming out to tell me it was a break,” King, the Nets’ general manager, said on a conference call Thursday.
But unlike last year, when King was told that Lopez had suffered a stress fracture in the fifth metatarsal of his right foot, the news yesterday was relatively good. The X-rays on Lopez’s foot were negative and he was diagnosed with a mild sprain of his right foot, an injury that will keep him out for at least tonight’s game against the Magic and tomorrow’s game in Miami against the Heat.
The injury occurred with just under seven minutes left in the third quarter, when Lopez landed awkwardly after completing a drive to the hoop. But after limping on it while moving up the floor, Lopez stayed in the game until the next stoppage in play, when he told the training staff it was just a sprained ankle. Walsh consulted with the Nets’ orthopedist, Dr. Riley Williams III.
“When the location of the pain, on top of the foot, was different than where he had it before, [Dr. Williams] suggested we wait, ice, get in here and get X-rayed in Orlando,” King said. “At noon he went with Timmy to see the Orlando doctor, and had an X-ray and the X-ray looks identical to the one before the season started.
“It’s not related to the previous injury and he’ll be out these two games and after that he’ll be day-to-day.”
Still, the fact Lopez didn’t suffer a more serious injury doesn’t lessen the fact this is his third injury to the same foot in the last year. After Lopez missed the first 32 games last season following surgery to repair the stress fracture, he played five games before re-injuring the foot against the Bobcats on March 4 and sat out the rest of the season.
King said unlike last year’s fracture, which was on the bottom and side of Lopez’s foot, this injury was on the top.
“It’s almost like a bone bruise,” King said. “On top of the bone there’s pain, and that’s why we did the X-ray and there’s nothing. There’s not a fracture or anything. … It’s a sprained foot.”
Although King admitted Lopez is in pain, saying if he could run on his foot, he would be playing, he King said the Nets went ahead with having an X-ray out of an abundance of caution because of what happened to Lopez last season.
“If it had been Deron Williams and he had that pain, we probably wouldn’t have gotten an X-ray,” King said. “But I think the fact that Brook has had some history with the foot, we wanted to make sure exactly what we were dealing with.“The doctor had the previous X-ray and this X-ray … and everybody agreed there’s been no change. There’s nothing there that’s a fracture or anything.”
The earliest Lopez could return to the lineup is Tuesday in Brooklyn against the Thunder. But King said after Lopez sits out tonight and tomorrow, the Nets will reevaluate him and see how he was feeling.
“I think I said these two games because we were obviously going to sit him [tonight] because of the pain and then [tomorrow], and then we’ll see how he feels,” King said.
“If the pain is gone, he’ll play,” King said. “We’ll just wait until he’s pain free.”