On Dec. 20 in Charlotte, Lakers forward Larry Nance Jr. knocked the ball loose and then proceeded to chase the play into the backcourt. When the ball went out of bounds, Nance stood still.
"Felt a little tweak in my knee and so I pulled up and stopped and couldn't put too much pressure on it, so that's when I asked those guys to get me off the court," Nance explained the play that had fans fearing the worst, prior to Tuesday's loss to the Utah Jazz.
Tests revealed that Nance did not have any structural damage in his knee but had suffered a bone bruise.
"It's hard not to go through all the possible scenarios being that I already had one major injury in my right knee," Nance said, referring to a torn ACL he suffered in college. "That was something I was hoping it wasn't, but I think we got the best news we could have possible gotten."
On Christmas Day, the Lakers listed a recovery timeline of "approximately four weeks," but the forward sounded upbeat that he could beat that timeline. He had already started rehab a couple days earlier and was now off crutches.
Nance said, "They said this one could potentially be four weeks. We’re hoping for earlier than that."
As he was talking to the media, Jordan Clarkson walked by chanting "Lar-ry! Lar-ry!" at one point and D'Angelo Russell walked by and screamed, "We miss you, Larry!" at another. Nance is a coach's favorite on the court and a locker room favorite with his teammates. His loss will be missed.
"I haven't died, I don't think," Nance joked.
Though he conceded that the travel following the injury probably didn't help reduce the initial swelling in his left knee, the 23-year-old said he would like to be with the team on any future trips. However, he admitted not being aware of the upcoming schedule, which only calls for a quick flight to Portland on the front end of a back-to-back over the upcoming fortnight.
Nance did not outright state that he would be back sooner than the four-week timeline, but when pressed, the former University of Wyoming standout offered, "I'm optimistic it'll be shorter than four weeks."
