Lakers’ second year man, Larry Nance Jr suffered a fractured right hand in Thursday night’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers
Coming off three straight victories, the Lakers and their fans alike set their eyes on the prize: the Summer League championship.
Seeing as the team usually has a knack for staying relevant during the regular season, the Summer League campaign is often pushed to the back burner but that is no longer the case as of late with the arrival of D’Angelo Russell and now Brandon Ingram.
Sadly however, on Thursday night in their first game of the Summer League tournament, the team lost a 19 point lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers and to add insult to injury, Larry Nance Jr in the process.
Preliminary results: Nance, Jr. suffered a fracture to the base of his 3rd metacarpal (R hand). To be evaluated by hand specialist tomorrow.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) July 15, 2016
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Despite initial reports that his x-rays came back negative, it was later reported that Nance had fractured the “base of his 3rd metacarpal” in his right hand.
Recovering from a lingering knee injury from last season, likely caused by a prior injury in college, Larry Nance Jr is no stranger to getting hurt, but the silver lining lay in the fact that he has a few months to get healthy before the start of the regular season.
On the other hand, this does drastically cut into his time to get acquainted with his new coach and the new system he will be running.
Seeing how players, and people in general, use their hands with regularity on a daily basis, hand injuries can also linger if not given the proper time to heal. So, as of now it is of utmost importance that he doesn’t rush back too soon and hurt himself again, similar to what he did with his knee issue last year.
Next: Luke Walton Will Encourage Team to Shoot Threes
Based on his short Summer League campaign, Larry Nance Jr is proving to be an invaluable piece to this young Lakers core and it will be interesting to see what Luke Walton does in regards to the log jam at power forward with him and Julius Randle when Nance eventually returns to the lineup.