Fox Has Doubts About Game 5

Laker forward Rick Fox strained his left ankle in the first quarter Sunday afternoon and had doubts about being ready for Game 5 Tuesday night in Minnesota.

He was to undergo an MRI exam this morning, before the Laker charter takes the team to Minneapolis. X-rays on Sunday were negative.

Asked about Game 5, he shook his head and said, “Right now, I can’t put any weight on it.”

Fox appeared to roll his ankle about five minutes into the game, stayed on the floor for another sequence, then called for a substitution. He said he’d experienced some pain in the same area in the hours after Game 3, but could not recall a particular incident. After two days of anti-inflammatory medication, Fox said he believed the ankle was sound, but two hard cuts convinced him otherwise.

“I’ve never felt that kind of pain before,” he said. “At that point, I had to get out.”

He grinned. Behind him, Fox had used athletic tape to adhere a sheet of paper to the interior of his locker. It announced the start of the NBA playoffs, and in black marker Fox, presumably, had added the goal: 16 wins.

“All in all,” he said with a smile, “we get rid of the dead weight and we win the game.”

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Former Laker Horace Grant told the Chicago Tribune’s Sam Smith on Sunday that he would consider playing for the Lakers next season, if they’d have him. The Lakers asked Grant to sign with them before the playoffs and he declined.

“I’d like to go where they have a center,” he said. “I’d like to go to the Lakers again and see what that’s like now.”

Of the Laker power forwards, Mark Madsen and Samaki Walker will be free agents and the club holds a $5.3-million option on Robert Horry. This summer will be thick with free-agent power forwards who might help the Lakers, including P.J. Brown, Juwan Howard, Karl Malone, Dale Davis and, perhaps, Keon Clark.

Grant will be 38 in July.

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After delays in paperwork and other negotiations, USA Basketball is expected to name Kobe Bryant to its Olympic qualifying team this week.

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Horry, fined $10,000 for shoving a cameraman at halftime of Game 2, hugged Channel 9 cameraman Victor Smith on his way off the floor Sunday.

“See that?” Smith said, laughing. “I told him I’d rather have the money.”

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