:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/1049951/20120416_mje_as8_599.0.jpg)
Portland Trail Blazers second-year guard Nolan Smith has been listed "day-to-day" with a minor left knee injury that kept him from practice on Tuesday. The injury occurred during training camp on Monday.
"Nolan Smith hyper-extended his knee," Blazers coach Terry Stotts told reporters. "There's a little bit of swelling."
Smith said that he did not undergo an MRI and that a doctor told him he suffered a "slight sprain to the back of the knee area."
The Blazers open their preseason against the Los Angeles Lakers in Ontario, CA., on Wednesday, before continuing on to face the Suns in Phoenix on Friday. Portland elected to leave rookie guard Will Barton at home with a hamstring injury. Smith, however, will stay with the team.
"He's going to go on the trip and he's day to day," Stotts said.
"I should be good [Wednesday]," Smith said. "Early treatment now, get it right, get a good night's rest and be good [Wednesday]."
Smith said he thought the injury occurred after he attacked the basket.
"Going up to the basket, I fell, on the way down I bent it a funny way," he explained. "It was weird. I honestly can't remember what happened. I started limping towards the end of practice. Felt some slight discomfort. Played through it. Kept playing. Woke up this morning, it was a little bit swollen, it was real stiff."
"Nolan has worked really hard," Stotts said. "He comes in the gym, he's the first one (here). He gets his shots up an hour-and-a-half before practice. He really wants to improve. He competes, and I think he's shown progress."
"If I'm on the floor with Nolan, we're interchangeable," [Damian] Lillard said. "He can bring the ball up, and I can play off the ball, and we can both switch it up that way. I have a great relationship with Nolan. A lot people were putting us up against each other. 'Who's going to compete for the point guard spot?' We blocked that out, and that's who I bonded with the most. We worked out, we still do, every morning together."