Now, O’Neal Sprains the Other Ankle

There is some good news for the Lakers on the Shaquille O’Neal injury front.

At least he’s balanced.

After suffering a sprained right ankle and watching from the bench Friday night while the Lakers beat Sacramento at the Forum, O’Neal returned Sunday at Vancouver, only to suffer a sprained left ankle in the third quarter of a 95-82 victory over the Grizzlies.

He is listed as a game-time decision tonight at Portland.

“Right now, it hurts a lot,” he said after Sunday’s game.

O’Neal showed few signs of the previous injury early, getting 19 of his game-high 31 points in the first half. But with about 7 1/2 minutes to play in the third quarter, while preparing to go up for a shot underneath the basket, he stepped on the foot of George Lynch and went down again.

O’Neal went out for 3:37, but came back and played the entire fourth quarter when the Grizzlies stayed close. So in what the Lakers would rather have been a night of light duty, O’Neal played a team-high 40 minutes and spent time after the game sitting on the trainer’s table with both ankles in a big bucket ordinarily used for mopping.

“We’re going to have to get about four guys to help carry him out and hope he can play tomorrow,” Coach Del Harris said.

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Cedric Ceballos may return to practice Tuesday, but that is something of a relative term.

Because the Lakers will be coming off back-to-back games, and four games in five nights, they plan to have a workout only for players who aren’t getting much time. They will have the full squad for the next off day, Thursday, but that figures to be a light workout because it comes between two games and the day before the Miami Heat is at the Forum in what could be a showdown between division leaders.

What this means is that Ceballos either will be activated without going through a hard practice or he won’t be activated for another several games.