John Denton of Florida Today filed this report earlier. It does not have good news:
ORLANDO -- A day after the Orlando Magic finally got their full squad back on the court together the injury bug struck again on Tuesday.
Rashard Lewis tried to practice Tuesday, but once again pulled up lame on his sore right ankle. Shooting guard J.J. Redick had to sit out because of lingering pain in the right hand that he broke prior to training camp. And point guard Jameer Nelson was unable to practice because of a stomach virus.
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy was clearly upset with the Magic being unable to practice fully Tuesday because of the setbacks. Since training camp opened almost a month ago, Orlando has had its full complement of players available just twice.
Tip of the cap to Black and Blue, who beat me to it.
That's three injuries in as many weeks for Lewis.
Ugh.
I realize that each team goes through injury troubles, and it's not an excuse for losing games. But the Magic need their core guys together and practicing every day before the season starts. We have one of the toughest schedules in the league, with our first 20 games coming in a 34-day span, including five sets of back-to-backs. If we get off to a rocky start -- say 7-13 -- because we're missing our best players we're going to find ourselves in a heap of trouble.
Meanwhile, Brian Schmitz gives us his update, and adds this tidbit:
The Magic also renewed Redick's rookie contract another three years, which was expected.
That's a lot of faith to put into a guy who's played in just 42 career games. But I don't write the checks.