The headline from a very quiet Portland Trail Blazers practice today was the continued uncertainty around center Joel Przybilla. Today's headline had nothing to do with his knee, however.
Coach Nate McMillan told reporters today that, "Joel woke up with a virus and had to be committed to the hospital." McMillan downplayed the seriousness of the stomach bug, "He should be OK. They're giving him an IV."
It's another complication, however, as McMillan and his staff had hoped to see Przybilla participate in another live practice today in advance of Portland's game on Friday against the New Orleans Hornets, which had been circled as Przybilla's return date. "We'll just see how he feels," McMillan said with regard to Przybilla's availability for Friday.
Przybilla went through practice on Monday. Here's a report from that with some video.
Przybilla has been rehabilitating from two knee surgeries in the past year. It sounded like, today, that the virus is now of greater concern than the knee. "What we want to see is him run without dragging his leg, pretty smoothly," McMillan said. "A lot of the rehab, we feel, is going to have to be in a game. Where he gets his confidence and he plays through some things.. We can see him run tomorrow and we feel now it's time to put him in a game and give him a few minutes and let him recover from there."
The team has a maintenance day tomorrow to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.
Brandon Roy practiced today and said he felt good. He also said he is "pretty sure" he will play on Friday against the Hornets as long as there aren't any setbacks. McMillan said, "he still has some soreness there, so we'll see how he feels before game time on Friday."
-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter