Horry Sent to Hospital Because of Chest Pain

Laker forward Robert Horry stayed overnight at Centinela Hospital Medical Center on Sunday after precautionary tests there discovered an irregular heartbeat.

Horry told at least one teammate before Sunday’s game that he had been feeling chest pain for several weeks--about the same time he had been suffering from a head cold and also flew back and forth to Houston to be with his wife for the birth of their son.

Horry was a late scratch from Sunday’s game when team doctors sent him to Centinela for the tests.

More tests are scheduled for this morning, the Lakers said.

“I talked to Robert briefly before the game and he told me had been having pains recently,” Derek Fisher said. “He had been having pains in recent weeks.

“It was something that really scared him. I was telling him that’s one area that you don’t chance. It’s one thing to go out there on a bad ankle or a bad knee and take a chance. But any time you’re having problems with the chest area, you just don’t take a chance going out there.

“This game today is a very, very minute piece of life as a whole. He did the right thing. I just hope that it’s not something that hinders him basically to be able to live his life. . . .

“I just want the best for him. He’s just had a new child and him growing up with that child is more important than him playing with this basketball team.”

Rick Fox said that Horry was puzzled about the continued pain.

“I was in the locker room earlier and it seemed as though he was talking to the doctor about it, some irregular feelings in his chest,” Fox said. “The doctor checked him and thought he was pretty fine.

“But I guess he continued to have the feelings and wanted to have some precautionary measures. He felt it wasn’t normal. He didn’t know if it was heartburn, didn’t know what it was.”