The much-anticipated Los Angeles Lakers debut of center Andre Drummond came on Wednesday night, but unfortunately did not go the way anyone had hoped. Drummond played just 14 minutes on the night and was forced to leave the Lakers’ 112-97 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks early.
Somewhat surprisingly, Drummond did not start the second half and was seen on the bench with his shoe off dealing with some sort of foot injury. Drummond would check in a couple of minutes into the second half, but less than two minutes later he would leave following a timeout. He would limp to the locker room and did not return to the contest, finishing with just four points, two assists, one rebound and one block.
Following the loss, Drummond revealed exactly what happened to cause the issue. “In the first quarter when I came out Brook [Lopez] had stepped on my foot and I didn’t really think anything of it,” Drummond said.
“I came back in the second quarter and it was hurting a little bit more and after halftime, I finally took my sock off to look and my whole toenail was gone. It was just all bad from there. I couldn’t walk or run, so I asked coach to take me out.”
The good news is that x-rays came back negative on Drummond’s toe and the Lakers classified it as a bruise. This would seem to be a day-to-day issue for Drummond and after the contest he was wearing sandals instead of shoes, which is a sign of the pain Drummond was experiencing.
“I’ve lost a toenail before, but this one was very painful,” he said. “You see me looking down on it because I can’t even put shoes on. I have on flip flops right now, so it’s very, very painful.”
Drummond added that he is relieved that the injury doesn’t seem to be as serious as it may have looked.
“I was definitely very happy to see that it was a negative result on the X-ray, so it’s just a day by day. Icing it and taking care of it making sure I get it wrapped up and seal the missing toenail that’s not there.”
There aren’t a lot of players who can match Drummond as far as size goes, but Brook Lopez is one of them and having a 7-foot, 280-pound man step on your toe is going to be painful regardless of how big you are. Unfortunately for the Lakers, this is just the latest in a string of injuries that has decimated the team this season.
“I don’t know what to say at this point,” Drummond concluded. “It’s just unfortunate like I said. Unfortunate that it happened in the first game. There’s not much I can do about it. Just try to find a way to get better and come back ready to play next time.”
As has been the case with the Lakers for the past few weeks, the most important thing will be getting healthy. Drummond is not only viewed as someone who can help this team in its championship quest, but also a player who can help the team stay afloat as LeBron James and Anthony Davis recover.
Hopefully for his and the Lakers’ sake, this will just be something minor and he won’t be forced to miss any significant time.
Drummond pleased with play before injury
Before Drummond got injured, he made a solid first impression on his new team in the first quarter by scoring a bucket and playing some solid defense on the other end, helping the Lakers take an early lead on a very talented Bucks team.
While the injury is obviously the main story, Drummond was pleased with how he played before getting hurt and believes it’s something to build off of.
“If you saw the first couple minutes of the game that I was out there just the energy defensively that I brought and it kind of boosted everybody on both ends of the court, so again it’s unfortunate to have this happen to me the first game.
“It was a little deflating for me, but my head is high. I’m going to take it day by day and come back better than ever.”
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