MILWAUKEE — Bucks center Larry Sanders will miss his second consecutive game Monday with a bruised lower back and will seek a second medical opinion in the coming days.
Sanders said prior to Monday's game against Washington that his back has not progressed the way he had expected it to, six days after suffering a scary fall in Denver.
"I'm not feeling that much better," Sanders said. "So, we'll see. It's really deep though, so I'm going to get another opinion. I've never had one that really bothered me like this before."
Bucks coach Jim Boylan wouldn't rule Sanders out for the final game before the All-Star break, but the fact he's seeking a second opinion leaves his status in doubt for Wednesday's game against Philadelphia.
Boylan confirmed the team is making arrangements for Sanders to go see somebody and have another set of eyes evaluate the injury.
After suffering the injury trying to draw a charge in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's loss to Denver, Sanders underwent a bone scan Wednesday in Salt Lake City that came back negative for any fracture.
Samuel Dalembert — who has double-doubles in three straight games — will start again in place of Sanders.
The NBA's leader in blocked shots, Sanders has come into his own protecting the rim this season and the Bucks have badly missed his defensive ability in the three games he's missed in the last two weeks due to illness and injury.
Milwaukee is 1-3 without Sanders this season, winning Dec. 12 against Sacramento but dropping all three games he's missed in the last two weeks.
"It's tough right now with just Sam out there and Ekpe's coming in for him," Boylan said. "We miss Larry in the rotation. We don't want to put too many minutes on Sam, I don't think he's quite ready for that yet.
"Not having Larry around forces us to push him a little bit, not afraid to do that but at the same time I'd rather have the luxury of not doing that."
After being away from the team to tend to a personal matter, Bucks reserve forward Marquis Daniels is back with the team and will be active for Monday's game.
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