It was a pretty unceremonious Laker debut for Andre Drummond.
Just 14 minutes in, he was forced to head back to the locker room after suffering a toe injury. A few minutes later, he was ruled out for the rest of the game with a right toe contusion with the X-rays coming back negative.
Andre Drummond had to leave the game after suffering a toe injury. pic.twitter.com/sb3W86pw3U
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 1, 2021
Postgame, the big man mentioned hurting his right toe when Bucks' Brook Lopez stepped on it in the first quarter and later noticing at halftime that his “whole toenail was gone”.
Lakers head coach Frank Vogel added that Drummond's toe will be re-evaluated tomorrow (Thursday ET).
A part of the starting five, in his time on the floor, Drummond finished with four points, two assists, a rebound and a block.
Andre Drummond's first @Lakers block & bucket in short order!
— NBA (@NBA) April 1, 2021
📺: ESPN pic.twitter.com/RDDHVFbmzc
Drummond was signed by the Lakers on Sunday night (ET), following his buyout with the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday.
He made a huge impact early on, helping the Lakers jump to a 20-13 lead after playing the first seven minutes. The team used that momentum to jump to their largest lead of 10 (28-18), starting the game 8-of-12 from beyond the arc.
"My head is high," Drummond said postgame after adding that the pain doesn't allow him to wear shoes and therefore was in flip-flops."I'm going to take it day by day and come back better than ever."
Following this 112-97 loss, Los Angeles falls to 30-18 for the season, just 0.5 games ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers and Denver Nuggets and four games out of the play-in spots.
This isn't great timing for the Lakers, who were hoping Drummond could provide them with a spark to ride the ship before the injured All-Stars LeBron James (ankle) and Anthony Davis (calf) return.
They head-off for a seven-game road trip, including five games in eight nights in Tampa (Raptors), Miami, Brooklyn, New York and Charlotte.
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