{"id":198770,"date":"2026-03-20T05:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T05:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/198770\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T05:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T05:27:16","slug":"orlando-magic-forward-jonathan-isaac-grateful-to-avoid-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/198770\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac grateful to avoid worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Jonathan Isaac<\/a> fell to the floor during the third quarter of last Thursday\u2019s game against the Wizards<\/a> at Kia Center, the longest-tenured member of the Magic<\/a> feared the worst.<\/p>\n

Grabbing his left knee in pain, Isaac remained on the court for an extended period of time before he eventually got up on his own power and slowly made his way to the Orlando<\/a> locker room.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until an MRI conducted that evening at the AdventHealth Training Center<\/a> confirmed that Isaac had avoided a major injury and had only suffered a left knee sprain.<\/p>\n

The night of the injury, he declined to speak with local media, but earlier this week, he shared his perspective for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucked,\u201d he told reporters in the locker room Tuesday night after the Magic fell to the Thunder<\/a>. \u201cIt was tough. Based on what I felt, it was like an \u2018Oh man, not again\u2019 type of moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I kind of just tried to manage my expectations when I (was) hearing from the doctor, but gratefully, they said it\u2019s just a sprain, and that\u2019ll be something I can come back from this season,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

If anyone knows what a serious knee injury feels like in the moment, it\u2019s Isaac. He previously missed 2 1\/2 years because of various knee injuries, including a torn left ACL.<\/p>\n

Even before his latest sprain, Isaac had already missed two games because of a sore left knee and one with a left knee strain. In 52 games this season, he\u2019s averaged 2.6 points and 2.5 rebounds during 10 minutes per night.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery, very, like you couldn\u2019t imagine,\u201d he said when asked how frustrating it is for him to deal with left knee problems again. \u201cBut we all got our own journeys, and this is mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m just trying to handle it the right way, try to have the best perspective that you can have, given the circumstances, and be there for my teammates,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Isaac, who was wearing a left knee brace on Tuesday, was expectedly ruled out of Thursday\u2019s road game against the Hornets<\/a>, and it\u2019s likely he won\u2019t be available when LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers make their lone trip of the regular season to Kia Center<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Magic also learned Thursday afternoon that they\u2019d be without starting center Wendell Carter Jr. at Charlotte<\/a> due to a left rib mild contusion. That\u2019s not to mention Anthony Black<\/a> (left lateral abdominal strain) and Franz Wanger<\/a> (left high ankle sprain injury management), who were already ruled out on the team\u2019s initial injury report.<\/p>\n

Franz Wagner shares frustrations with rehab after Magic drop back-to-back<\/a><\/p>\n

As of Tuesday, Isaac hadn\u2019t really started doing any major work towards an eventual return, mentioning he had only done some red light therapy and some slight movement.<\/p>\n

Isaac said the focus was to take time to let the injury heal before starting to do more work sometime next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really glad it wasn\u2019t something worse,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I just have to manage this sprain and get better. Just wait until it calms down a little bit with the inflammation and the pain, and then slowly work back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic vs. Lakers<\/p>\n

When: 7 p.m., Saturday, Kia Center<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Florida\/NBA TV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Jonathan Isaac fell to the floor during the third quarter of last Thursday\u2019s game against the Wizards…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,114,2295,1335,139,141,1239,140,109,76046,110],"class_list":["post-198770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}