Lakers Need Ice, Not Heat : Pro basketball: Campbell sprains ankle in third quarter of 110-104 loss to Miami.
MIAMI — Results Tuesday night from Miami Arena:
One Laker down and out, Elden Campbell.
One Laker down temporarily, Anthony Peeler.
One Laker back, Sedale Threatt.
One Laker barely back, Sam Bowie.
One Laker loss to the Miami Heat, 110-104, despite 23 points each from Vlade Divac and Anthony Peeler before 14,452, at least some of whom should have known to dress as the bandaged Civil War fife-and-drum corps to get in the proper spirit.
When the Lakers play again tonight at Orlando, Campbell will almost definitely be sidelined because of a sprained left ankle suffered late in the third quarter, the same injury that sidelined him for five games from Feb. 1-8.
How long he will be out is the question. Tonight, yes. The final two games of the trip, Friday at Minnesota and Saturday at Chicago, are up in the air. One bit of encouraging news for Campbell and the Lakers is that the injury doesn’t appear to be as bad as last month’s.
“At first I thought it was,†said Campbell, who landed on the foot of a Miami player while contesting a shot. “I was like, ‘Oh, no. Not again.’ But after the initial shock, it stabilized.â€
The Lakers could only hope for the same. Of the eight players who could claim good health Tuesday, at least relatively speaking, two are on 10-day contracts from the CBA and four others were coming off the bench, some from very far off the bench. That left Nick Van Exel and Divac, who had eight rebounds to snap his string of seven consecutive double-doubles. But he did have seven more assists.
They would have been in even more dire straits had Peeler’s injury been as serious as it first appeared. That was with 7:47 to play in the second quarter, when he called a 20-second timeout and limped to the bench, where he spent a moment before heading to the locker room. X-rays on his right foot were negative, so he returned to start the third quarter and played 29 minutes in all.
Threatt, meanwhile, contributed 16 points on seven-of-10 shooting in 21 minutes, his first action after missing the previous three games because of bursitis of the right foot. He appeared ready to go much longer, but was held out because of a desire to work him back in slowly.
“We were supposed to keep him around 15 minutes, but we expanded that a little,†Coach Del Harris said. “Sedale, of course, was feeling great. But I got doctor’s orders. Sedale wants to play and the coach wants him to play, but we’ve got to do the right thing.â€
Bowie, who had missed the previous five games because of a fractured rib, returned ahead of schedule in hopes of offsetting the other Laker injuries, but lasted only five minutes before getting hit in an area that was already sore. He also volunteered to keep going, but Harris decided against that, figuring it would be a good idea to have some bodies not held together by tape for the long haul.
So, among the power forwards alone, Campbell started but did not finish and Bowie might as well have not even started. Into this void stepped Anthony (Pig) Miller, again, earning much more than praise in the process.
Two games after getting 18 points and 15 rebounds to lead a double-overtime victory over Sacramento, he produced again, this time getting 14 points and 13 rebounds. He now gets a promotion to the starting lineup, barring a miracle recovery by Campbell.
“I feel like I can step in and do what I’ve been doing,†Miller said. “Grabbing rebounds and scoring when I have to.â€
That means Divac and Van Exel will be the only usual names in the starting lineup tonight. Peeler has been playing well since replacing Eddie Jones--injured, of course--averaging 19.1 points while starting the last nine games, but the forwards will be new: Miller and Lloyd Daniels.
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