Vaught Is Feeling Better

By HELENE ELLIOTT

Nov. 11, 1997 12 AM PT

Forward Loy Vaught, who played only 11 minutes in the Clippers’ 123-105 loss to Phoenix on Saturday and didn’t play at all at Sacramento last Friday because of a jammed right big toe, said Monday he feels much better and expects to increase his playing time tonight against the Grizzlies.

“It’s healing up,” Vaught said after practice at General Motors Place. “I’m moving better and it’s less painful as each day passes. I’m taking a lot of medication and I hope I can play more minutes.”

Coach Bill Fitch said Vaught was more mobile Monday but isn’t ready for regular duty. “He’s available again and every day he stays off it, the better it is,” Fitch said. “He was off it [Sunday] and it appears to have gotten much better today. . . . The other night he just couldn’t move the way he usually can. Now, he’s started running better.”

Fitch was extremely unhappy with his team’s defense Saturday, and with good reason. The Clippers are giving up 104.8 points per game, third-worst in the NBA.

The Clippers are scoring 97.4 points per game, which ranks in the middle of the pack.

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Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

Vaught Is Feeling Better

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