ORLANDO – The Nets will once again be without Gerald Wallace Friday night here against the Magic, as their starting small forward will again sit with a sprained left ankle.
Wallace didn’t participate in any of Thursday’s practice, and hasn’t done anything since he sprained the ankle in the final minute of Saturday night’s season opening win against the Toronto Raptors.
“He’s doing OK,” Johnson said Thursday. “He didn’t participate in any parts of practice. He just kind of walked around a little bit. But, like I said, we’ll see how he feels when he wakes up tomorrow, get him moving a little bit and go from there.”
Johnson said that Wallace may get in a workout Friday morning, and needs him to do something before he is going to put him back in the lineup.
“We’ll see how much he can go through shootaround,” Johnson said. “I’d like to see him play some 1-on-1 or do something at some point before we put him in a game, and I’m not sure that’s gonna happen tomorrow morning. But we’ll see.”
The Nets could use Wallace back as soon as possible, given the way they’ve played the last two games against the Timberwolves and Heat. Wallace has proven himself to be one of the team’s most valuable players, if not the most valuable, given his defensive ability and his versatility, which allows him to play against smaller, more athletic power forwards.
But while Wallace will miss Friday’s game, the Nets could have Josh Childress in uniform for the first time this season. Childress has sat each of the first three games with a sprained left ankle of his own. Childress participated in Thursday’s practice, the first time he took the floor since practicing on Halloween in Brooklyn.
tbontemps@nypost.com