Injured SF Kyle Spain (knee) appears on schedule to return to the Erie BayHawks in time for the playoffs.

The Erie BayHawks had its second day of practice Wednesday afternoon at Penn State Behrend’s Junker Center heading into Game 1 of their first-round series against the Reno Bighorns at Tullio Arena.

Kyle Spain, who was waived by the team due to injury last week, was shooting jump shots after having an MRI on his left knee for chronic tendinitis. Because Erie waived him due to injury, it can bring him back.

The BayHawks have brought in forward Chaz McCrommon out of Robert Morris to replace Spain, but if Spain gets back in time before Game 1, the team will have to waive a player.

“We have to make that decision when the time came,” Erie coach Jay Larranaga said. “I honestly haven’t made any determination of what 10 we could dress for the game, but I like all 11 guys that we have. I think they all can help us in the games.”

Larranaga said he hopes Spain can return for the playoffs. After Wednesday’s practice, Spain was shooting jump shots. He’ll do a lot more Thursday.

“He said it’s feeling a little better,” Larranaga said. “We plan on testing it. Tomorrow he’ll do some individual work with (assistant Ben McDonald) and we’re hoping on Friday he’ll be able to go 5-on-5 with the team and be able to see where he’s at. I think it’s progressing good and he feels good.”

But who will Erie cut if Spain does come back as he said he would when waived Saturday morning?

It could be McCrommon, who has practiced with the BayHawks, but they may also release power forward Alton Ford,  who is a former NBA player, but hasn’t played much for Erie this season. Ford has only played seven games and scored a total of seven points in that stretch.

Kyle Spain and the Erie BayHawks have more work to do before the D-League playoffs begin next month.

A night in Reno.

The BayHawks resume their five-game road trip tomorrow at Reno (26-16) and follow that up with two games at Bakersfield (25-16) before rounding it up Tuesday at Fort Wayne (19-23).

Erie opened the road trip with a 133-126 loss Sunday at Iowa, which has the D-League’s best record at 32-11.

Erie (27-14) has clinched the playoffs and is right now a fourth seed. The top four seeds have home-court advantage for the first round and the top three seeds get to pick their first-round opponent.

Reno is just 1.5 games behind Erie and Bakersfield trails the BayHawks by two games. If the BayHawks lose those three, they could drop from fourth to seventh in a hurry.

Plus the Bighorns and Jam will own the head-to-head tiebreaker against the BayHawks.

And don’t think that game at Fort Wayne will be easy.

Erie is 4-1 against the Mad Ants, but they’re vying for the final playoff spot and have a former BayHawk in point guard Derek Raivio, who landed in Fort Wayne following a three-team trade last month.

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The BayHawks will look to win their fourth straight game today against Maine at Tullio Arena.

Maine Red Claws (9-10) at Erie BayHawks (12-6)

Sunday, 2 p.m., Tullio Arena.
▀  On the air: WFNN-AM 1330; www.nba.com/dleague/

Players to watch
▀  Erie — PF Ivan Johnson (Leads team in scoring at 17.6 points a game. Johnson had a game-high 25 points in a 97-91 win against Sioux Falls on Friday night. … C Solomon Alabi (A rookie with the Toronto Raptors, Alabi had eight points, six rebounds, four fouls and three blocks in 14 minutes, 51 seconds. It’s the least amount of playing time he’s had in his eight games with Erie. … SG Kyle Spain (Heading into Saturday’s games, he was eighth in the D-League in 3-point shooting at 48.7 percent – 19-of-39. The seven players ahead of him had attempted a combined total of 35 three-pointers before Saturday’ s games.

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Tasheed Carr is certain he's going to make Erie's final 10-man roster.

Tasheed Carr says he’s focused on just getting better every day in training camp.

Making the Erie BayHawks’ final 10-man roster is a given for him.

“I think I’ve worked hard and I think I’ve earned a spot,” Carr said after Tuesdays’ morning practice. “So right now I’m focused on every day getting better and helping out my team anyway possible and get ready for Friday.”

Now Carr was considered a leader while at St. Joe’s, but the BayHawks are using him as a 2-guard instead of a point guard. Since he can do both and shoot the ball, that makes Carr more attractive to keep on the team.

Erie must get its roster down to 10 by 5 p.m. Thursday. The BayHawks open the season Friday against Springfield at Tullio Arena.

Hard to say who the BayHawks will cut, but their new coach, Jay Larranaga, plans to make the final cuts by the end of the night and inform the players Wednesday morning who’s staying and who’s leaving.

Erie currently has 13 players now. Larranaga hasn’t made a cut since early on in training camp so you know he likes the remaining players.

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First-round pick Ivan Johnson gives the Erie BayHawks an inside scoring presence.

The Erie BayHawks enter their third training camp with a new coach in Jay Larranaga, who approached the 2010 D-League Draft with three main objectives:

1. Get bigs.

2. Get guards who can shoot and exude toughness

3. Get guys who aren’t coming straight out of college.

After Monday’s draft, Larranaga feels as if he accomplished those goals in the eight-round draft. That remains to be seen, but for now, let’s take a look at who he picked.

1. Ivan Johnson (6-8, 230, PF, Ca. St.-San Bernadino). He played 45 games in the D-League and averaged 13.9 points and 6.7 rebounds in 2007-08. Big guy. Inside presence, but while playing overseas in Korea this past season, he got kicked out of a pro league for swearing and delivering an obscene gesture to a referee. Now apparently it was the final game of a championship series his team lost, but you can look at this two ways. One, that’s poor sportsmanship, but two, his team was in the championship series and I’m sure he had something to do with that, too. What Erie is getting is a guy who at age 26 is likely making his last push to get in the NBA. So he should be driven.

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