Steve Nash participated in his first full practice with Lakers, hopes he can return by Christmas to play New York Knicks

Steve Nash updates are a broken record at this point. Another iteration of "two weeks" and "progress", and another two weeks passing without the point guard on the floor. However, Steve Nash has participated in his first full practice since his injury on October 31st. Lakers.com reporter Mike Trudell has the full report here.

The veteran point guard – who’s been out since Halloween – participated in a full practice, though the Lakers did not scrimmage or go through full-court contact drills. Nonetheless, being on the court left him feeling fairly optimistic, as he hopes to return from the non-displaced fracture in his left leg sooner than later.

"Hopefully I can play by Christmas," said Nash. "We’ll see how it responds this week. Today we didn’t do any 5-on-5 or contact." - Mike Trudell, Lakers.com

Christmas is eight days away from today and with the Lakers light schedule seems like a hopeful date. The fact that he's practicing and getting involved with the team is certainly worth gaining, at the very least, an ounce of optimism as the Lakers continue to slog through the time without Nash. With the extra time between Tuesday's game and Saturday's game, having Nash on the floor during practice provides the team an opportunity to play with the point guard for the first time since Mike D'Antoni was hired on as head coach. Updates as they come, but this is the first solid sign of progress since he originally fractured his fibula. Rejoice!