Jonathan Isaac is at another crossroads of his NBA career.
Unfortunately for the Magic’s second-year forward, his path keeps leading him back to the same intersection.
It’s the intersection of ankle and sprain, and the paths have crossed at least three times since he was selected No. 6 in the 2017 NBA draft after playing just one season at FSU.
Isaac missed his third straight game Wednesday night against the Detroit Pistons, and his latest injury came Friday night after landing on the size-20 foot of 7-foot-3 Los Angeles Clippers center Marjanovic Boban.
Isaac, who did do a little work on his jumpshot after Wednesday morning’s shootaround, is considered day-to-day as the Magic continue to evaluate the 6-foot-10 center.
Orlando coach Steve Clifford said that if the team had practiced Wednesday, Isaac would have been held out.
Isaac missed all but 27 games a year ago with what was called a mild ankle sprain, and then suffered another mild ankle sprain in the preseason that caused him to miss two games.
The latest setback is a mild right ankle sprain.
“You can tell being around him he so wants to be out there, but I think he understands too that it’s important, we’ve played 10 games, so it’s just important that we handle it the right way so that it’s not one of those things where he plays two games and then he’s sore and he has to miss a game,” Clifford said.
“The way it’s being handled is hopefully by, whenever, in the next couple of days or early next week, whenever it is, he’ll feel 100 percent and then hopefully he can just play where it’s injury-free or pain-free and that will give him a better chance to play the way he was. He was playing at a high level.”
During eight games he has played this season — with the eighth game cut short in the first half by the injury — Isaac averaged 7.1 points per game and 5.3 rebounds. He also had eight blocked shots and six steals and was making his 2-point field goals at a clip of 50 percent (17 of 34).
Fournier slightly injured Monday
Guard Evan Fournier, who hit the first-buzzer-beating game-winner of his NBA career on Monday night against Cleveland, apparently turned his ankle in the game. He did not feel the injury right away, but after the game adrenaline wore off, it became sore late Monday night.
The Magic had a day off Tuesday and Fournier was good to go Wednesday night.
“It happened, I think, with a little over a minute left in the game,” Clifford said. “He’s OK to play. The next morning he came in and got treatment and he felt a lot better today.”
