NOVEMBER 16, 8:12pm: Rondo underwent surgery on Friday, according to a team press release. His revised timetable is 4-5 weeks.
NOVEMBER 15, 2:22pm: Rondo will undergo surgery on his right hand within the next 24 hours, per the Lakers (Twitter link via Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times). Rondo’s recovery timetable is still about three to five weeks, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
NOVEMBER 15, 8:23am: LeBron James and the Lakers played perhaps their best game of the season on Wednesday night, dispatching the Trail Blazers as James passed Wilt Chamberlain to become the NBA’s fifth all-time leading scorer. However, the win was marred by an injury to one of the team’s key players.
As head coach Luke Walton confirmed after the game, point guard Rajon Rondo broke his right hand while attempting to make a steal in the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ win, fracturing the third metacarpal in his hand (link via Joey Ramirez of Lakers.com).
According to Ohm Youngmisuk and Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com, Rondo will see a specialist on Thursday to determine whether or not surgery will be necessary. For now, the Lakers are operating under the assumption that the veteran guard will miss about three to five weeks, per the ESPN duo.
“It’s tough,” James said of Rondo’s injury. “He’s one of our captains, one of our leaders. I heard we got great surgeons here in L.A., so get right to it, start his rehab as fast as possible, get going. Next man up. Next man up. I know Rondo hates the fact of what he’s going through right now, but we all have to pick him up in his absence.”
With Rondo sidelined, Lonzo Ball will continue to handle starting duties, but the backup minutes may be up for grabs. Lance Stephenson and Brandon Ingram aren’t really point guards, but they may assume increased ball-handling duties. Two-way player Alex Caruso could also be an option.
Missing a number before “all-time leading scorer” as much as I wish that were true!
Caruso played well in spots last season – no reason not to bring him back at this time
yes, and it also was PG for team USA in one of the previous Windows for the qualifying of the World Championship. He is capable.
I felt Brandon did an excellent job last year with lonzo gone.
He handled that job well and improved with his time in that spot.
However, I think he is missing those minutes this year in that capacity with all of our newly acquired players doing rotation minutes.
Give Ingram more playing time!
Can’t agree more. Ingram has sooo much potential, he can very well handle the back PG playing time left behind Lonzo. Lonzo & Ingram are the future for the Lakers, Kuzma with some improvements & Hart can help too, no need to add anyone for just a few weeks. Hopefully next summer they can get someone like KD or a healthy DMC. Meanwhile Ingram should be the next man up after LBJ