An offseason hand injury didn’t cost Larry Nance Jr. any regular season games, but the Lakers forward has suffered a new injury that will keep him out of action for about a month. The Lakers announced late last night in a press release that Nance has been diagnosed with a left knee bone bruise, and is expected to miss approximately four weeks.
Nance first suffered the injury last Tuesday in Charlotte, and underwent an MRI a day later to confirm the diagnosis. However, at that point the Lakers were unable to conduct a full evaluation due to the swelling in the knee. The team completed that re-evaluation on Sunday.
Nance, who turns 24 on New Year’s Day, has been one of the Lakers’ key rotation pieces off the bench this season, averaging 7.0 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 1.2 SPG in 28 games for the team. The 2015 first-round pick has also increased his shooting percentage to an impressive 58.4% in the early going this season.
With Nance unavailable, big men like Timofey Mozgov and Thomas Robinson appear poised to take on larger roles in the Lakers’ rotation.
With Nance being out for a month it would be nice for the Lakers to promote either vet Jeff Ayres, former UCLA/Knicks forward Travis Wear or former UNLV forward Roscoe Smith from the D-Fenders roster to help pick up some of the scoring/rebounding loss due to Nance being out.