Andre Drummond back injury: 'It's tough, you know, hotel beds'

Andre Drummond, limited in the second half of Monday's game in New York with a sore back, expects to play Wednesday in Detroit against the Brooklyn Nets.

Drummond also disputed reports that his back is a lingering issue from the summer, explaining that he "tweaked" his back in Sunday's game against the Lakers while attempting to block a shot by Lakers' guard Steve Blake before aggravating it with the rigors of travel. From MLive's David Mayo:

"Just a bad landing and I tweaked it a little bit," he said.

Playing the second day of a back-to-back didn't help and Drummond said he never managed to get the back loosened up against the Knicks.

"It's tough, you know, hotel beds," he said.

[...] "Just a bad landing, that's all," he said. "It happens. You never know when these things come up. I just have to take care of it and I'll be all right. I'll be ready for Wednesday."

I'm not sure when precisely Drummond suffered the injury Sunday, but one of his successful blocks did come against Steve Blake:

Despite being held to eight minutes Monday against the Knicks, Drummond still managed to fill up the box score with five rebounds, one block and one steal. He shot just 1-6 from the field, though, finishing with just two points.

Even if this injury isn't related to his ailment from the summer, it's worth pointing out that he's already played more minutes this season (981) than he did his entire freshman season (967) at UConn. He's averaging just 20.0 minutes a game as a pro vs. 28.4 in college, but needless to say the number of games has been greatly compressed. If there's such a thing as the rookie wall, it may be on the horizon.