No Hand Fracture For Larry Nance Jr.

5:31pm: According to the Lakers (via Twitter), an MRI showed a sprained right wrist for Nance, but no fracture or ligament damage.

8:49am: The Lakers fear that power forward Larry Nance Jr. suffered a broken right hand late in Thursday’s Summer League game, according to Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News. Nance took a hard fall while driving to the basket with 35 seconds left. Post game X-rays revealed an apparent fracture to the base of the third metacarpal, tweets Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times.

“I’ve seen his condition,” Lakers rookie center Ivica Zubac said. “He says it’s broken.”

The Lakers are officially calling the injury a “probable fracture,” and Nance will see a hand specialist today in Los Angeles. After that examination, the team will issue a statement on the extent of the injury and Nance’s estimated recovery time. He has about two and a half months to heal before training camp starts in late September. Six to eight weeks is the normal recovery time for an injury of this type, tweets Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times.

“If it’s not great news, he’s a great kid and a hard worker,” said Lakers Summer League head coach Jesse Mermuys. “He’ll be back sooner than whatever they say.”

Nance, a late first-round pick in 2015, emerged as a pleasant surprise for L.A. last season, averaging 5.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game and starting 22 of the 63 games in which he appeared.

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