Nets forward diagnosed with fractured tibia

Second-year forward Maxwell Lewis has been diagnosed with a fractured left tibia, the Nets announced on Friday (X link via Marc J. Spears of Andscape).

According to the team, Lewis’ status will be updated again in four weeks, so he’ll be out for at least the rest of January and likely beyond that. However, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (X link) that the injury isn’t expected to be season-ending.

Lewis suffered the injury in Wednesday’s game at Toronto when he got tangled up with Raptors center Jakob Poeltl as he backpedaled toward his basket after making a three-pointer (X video link). It occurred in his first game as a Net after being sent to Brooklyn as part of the Dorian Finney-Smith trade over the weekend.

It’s a disappointing turn of events for a player who seemed likely to play a little more for a rebuilding Nets squad after not seeing much action for the Lakers since the start of last season.

The No. 40 overall pick in the 2023 draft, Lewis appeared in 41 games for the Lakers across a season-and-a-half, scoring 15 points on 6-of-27 shooting in 132 total minutes during his time in Los Angeles. He logged just 1:05 with the Nets before going down with his leg injury.