Magic guard Victor Oladipo left Wednesday’s game against the Lakers with concussion-like symptoms, the team announced.
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The 37-year-old Bryant missed his first game of what could be his final National Basketball Association season Tuesday in Miami, saying afterward that he “had trouble walking”.
Vucevic played as a reserve for the first time in his four seasons with the Magic.
It’s fair to say that, if not for the early injury to Oladipo, Napier may not have played so much.
Kobe Bryant, who didn’t attend the Lakers’ shoot-around Friday morning because he wasn’t feeling well, remains questionable for the game against Dallas later tonight because of a sore back.
Bryant is averaging 16.5 points on 32 percent shooting this season, which is on pace for his worst shooting percentage since he entered the league.
But the real differential was three-point shooting, as Orlando was a plus-18 from that mark and shot an incredible 46.4 percent. He’d missed the two games previously and would come off the bench in this one.
Russell did play the final seven minutes against the Magic on Wednesday night, a step in the right direction for him. Magic G Elfrid Payton was 1 for 13 from the field and scored two points. Vucevic celebrated the shot like he had won a playoff Game 7.
It’s been a surprisingly sudden shift, though, from Bryant openly declaring to Scott he’d like to play in all 82 games if possible just days before going through his first stint of DNP’s of the season. “We had a few defensive breakdowns”. “I love the way Larry plays”, Coach Byron Scott said.
In the end, Aldridge chose the Spurs as he felt this was the most appropriate for him and his personality.
Russell said to the Los Angeles Daily News that he has “got to figure out what I’m doing wrong” so he can “correct it” moving forward for the Lakers.
The Magic scored the last seven points of the third quarter to take a 74-70 lead into the fourth. He said after the game that he hopes to play Friday in Dallas. He leads the team in rebounds (8.0 per game) and blocks (2.4 per game) while putting up 15.8 points per game. “I’m pretty simple, and I think that’s what this organization is about”, Aldridge said. But so too does head coach Scott Skiles, who elected to finally turn Napier loose to the tune of over 30 minutes of action in this one.
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Magic: PG C.J. Watson (calf strain) sat out the game.
