NBA
Notebook: Nets' Kidd to have MRI on sore knee

By The Associated Press

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — All-Star point guard Jason Kidd of the New Jersey Nets plans to have an MRI on a sore left knee that has bothered him in recent games.

The injury was disclosed yesterday after Kidd spent the final 14-plus minutes on the bench in the Nets' 100-83 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

"It just got stiff on me and I couldn't move, and coach removed me from the game," Kidd said.

The MRI will be performed today. Kidd hopes to play in Denver tomorrow against the Nuggets.

Kidd did not know when he hurt the knee. He said it was "banged up" for a while and it hasn't gotten better.

"If I can't move, it's serious," Kidd said. "That's part of my game, just being able to run, to start the transition. In the last couple of games we haven't been able to run, maybe due to me not being mobile. We'll see how it feels tomorrow."

Kidd hurt the same knee early this season, but he said this one is a bigger bruise.

"It (the pain) goes everywhere through my leg, so that's why they are concerned about it," Kidd said. "It's going through my leg, so they want to see what is going on."

Hearing in Bryant trial opens today
 
EAGLE, Colo. — The woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape told police she had consensual sex with someone else two days earlier, but whether jurors will be allowed to hear that is part of the agenda for a hearing that starts today.

Before such information can be presented to the jury at Bryant's assault trial, the state's rape-shield law requires that Bryant's attorneys prove to the judge in a closed-door hearing that the woman's prior sexual information is relevant.

The woman is scheduled to testify tomorrow. She and Bryant will be in court together for the first time since the Los Angeles Lakers guard was arrested in July.

In court filings, defense attorneys Hal Haddon and Pamela Mackey have argued that the woman's sexual conduct is relevant because it could show injuries found in a rape examination the day after the alleged attack could have been caused by someone else.

Prosecutors maintain that the information is irrelevant and want the judge to prohibit it from being introduced at trial.

Bryant, 25, has said he had consensual sex with the 19-year-old woman. If convicted, he faces four years to life in prison, or 20 years to life on probation. No trial date has been set.

Note

• Philadelphia 76ers G Allen Iverson and F Glenn Robinson missed yesterday's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves because of injuries.

Iverson missed his fourth straight game with a bruised right shoulder. Robinson missed his second with a strained right elbow.

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