“I’m on medication!” Nick Young laughed as he passed a wall of reporters begging the injured LA Lakers’ star to speak after Wednesday’s practice. Following Monday’s successful surgery, Young was wearing a cast and clearly had not participated in the team practice.
The Lakers’ electric personality is expected to miss eight weeks due to the thumb injury, but he recently hit social media and drew some laughs.
“We can’t really do anything with (Young) for a couple of days,” Lakers’ coach Byron Scott said on Wednesday. “When I first saw him today, I didn’t know that. I said, ‘Get your stuff on. We’re going to do some running.’”
Young quickly told Scott that he wasn’t allowed to do any conditioning for a couple days.
“I think he was pretty happy about it,” Scott continued the story. “In the long run, I’m going to get the last laugh, so it’s going to be happy days for me coming up.”
With a smirk, Scott confirmed that Young would likely only have a couple days off before the re-conditioning would commence.
In other injury news, Wesley Johnson, who had his knee buckle during the preseason opener on Monday, was back at practice on Wednesday. Johnson was able to fully participate in the two-hour session and felt confident he would be ready to go on Thursday night at Staples Center. However, the ultimate decision would fall on the Lakers’ coaching and medical staffs.
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Johnson said, “I think they’ll just let me know (about playing on Thursday). We’re playing it by ear now.”
“Yea, a little bit sore. I mean, that’s all it was. Pretty much just sore,” Johnson, who was wearing a protective band below his left knee, responded when asked about how his knee felt in the days following the injury. “Today in practice, it felt fine.”
Xavier Henry was also at practice shooting around, but he was limited and watching the majority of the session.
“He still really can’t really move as well as he wants to,” Scott said about Henry, who missed the start of training camp due to back spasms. “His back is still tender, so we just have to wait until that thing calms down.”
With regards to the lineups he put out on Monday, Scott said he expected all the same players to be available in Thursday’s game at Staples Center. The Lakers’ coach said he would try some different lineups, and one player specifically mentioned was Ronnie Price. Price has been a standout player in camp but was unable to see the floor in the Lakers’ opener in San Diego.
Notes: Steve Nash took part in practice but left the group session early to do individual stretching. Scott said Nash was available and expected to take part in Thursday night’s preseason game at Staples Center against the Golden State Warriors.
