On Monday, Steven Nash did not practice. However, Nash has improved enough to participate in some on-court agility drills and jogging.
Prior to this week, Nash was only working out on the elliptical machine to maintain cardio. Nash will not be available for the game against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night, but this news comes as a major boost to 38 year-old point guard’s recovery from a displaced fracture in his leg. He expects to continue with jogging and agility drills over the coming days until he is eventually ready to practice with the team.
The Lakers also announced that Steve Blake’s abdominal injury has improved, but Blake was unable to practice on Monday. Blake will also not be available for Tuesday’s game. The Lakers should continue to start Darius Morris. Chris Duhon expects to split time at the point guard position.
In other injury news, Kobe Bryant was in practice and showing signs of overcoming the foot injury that has plagued the Lakers shooting guard since the start of the season.
Pau Gasol also has some knee tendinitis, but he does not expect to miss any time.
With both Nash and Blake improving, the Lakers should have significant depth at the point guard position. Morris emerged as a talented young player over the past couple weeks, and Duhon has history with coach Mike D’Antoni. Also, rumors that the team is looking to add an experienced shooting guard to the bench should give D’Antoni a plethora of back-court options when the team is finally healthy.
At this point, deciding which players come in for Nash and Bryant should be a headache D’Antoni is looking forward to.
