Lonzo Ball feared the worst when he collided with the Rockets’ James Ennis last Saturday, relays Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register. Ball wound up with a grade 3 left ankle sprain and a recovery time of four to six weeks, but he thought he had a broken bone as teammates carried him to the locker room.
“It happened kind of fast,” he said. “I remember my leg pretty much just going like that and kind of popping out.”
Ball made a bit of progress Friday, getting off crutches and shifting to a walking boot, and now plans to work in the weight room and engage in intensive film study as he prepares to return to the court. He laments the timing of the mishap, which came amid some of his best performances of the season, and the string of injuries that have affected the team in recent weeks.
“You’re asking people to play out of position. You’re asking people to play more minutes than usually they play. And we’ve never really had a full team for the whole year,” Ball said. “So hopefully after All-Star we can all come together and go on a nice little run.”
There’s more Lakers news to pass along:
- LeBron James went through contact drills in practice today for the first time since suffering a groin strain on Christmas, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. James’ agent, Rich Paul, said he could return to action now if needed, but is working his way back to being a dominating presence. L.A. is 5-10 since LeBron’s injury and has dropped to ninth place in the West.
- The trade value of the Lakers’ young players has declined over the past six months, a Western Conference executive tells Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. Woike asked several league executives and scouts to evaluate Brandon Ingram, Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart and Ivica Zubac. They were split on Ingram or Kuzma as the most coveted, with mixed opinions on the other three.
- The Lakers don’t have a center who can shoot 3-pointers to keep up with the league-wide trend, but they let one get away in Brook Lopez, Woike writes in a separate story. A move to the Bucks has turned Lopez into a dangerous 3-point weapon who is on pace to take more this season than he did in his previous eight years. He spent last season in L.A. before accepting a modest one-year, $3.382MM offer to go to Milwaukee.
Wow – an entire article without any reference about how James and his followers are unhappy with the job Walton is doing!
Had to read the article twice to make sure I didn’t overlook him complaining about something
He didn’t say anything, but whatever
Think that article was published Saturday morning.
If you read the article backwards, it says James’ agent is pressuring ownership for a new coach. LOL
Lopez has been the key to the Bucks improvement as he draws the other teams big man out of the paint and the Bucks have a bunch of guys who can drive.
is there a bigger cancer in the league than lbj? wtf he’s beyond trash
Butler
Cancer? 8 straight finals?
coach killer, blames teammates for losses, takes credit for wins.. just to name few. why don’t star players want to team-up with him?
In the Eastern Conference. First year in Western Conference this season, he’ll be watching Finals at home.
Yeh LeBron can take his hall of fame career and shove since the lakers have done so much better while he is out.
Firing Walton would be so stupid. Hard to win with your best player and best man of the bench out. They were the 4 seed before Lebron went out. Magic should have signed Cousins when he had the chance.
still shouldn’t be losing to the Cavs at home
It’s amazing that he came out for Walton when Magic went crazy, but a month later doesn’t like him. It could be true, but I need to hear it from somebody other than a life long Celtic report/fan. This could fake news, as the both posture for AD!
Magic didn’t go crazy. LeBron is the reason Walton got admonished.
Just make things up, however you want them to be.
First of all the only person who reported on it was a Celtics reporter. If other sources reported something similar, it may carry a little weight. Second it was stated in the article that it was LeBron’s camp, and not James who feels that way. Everyone is so quick to jump down his throat. I get it. He has been vocal in the past about players and coaches. He has only expressed support this year. What we read is only a fraction truth and mostly speculation anyway. Unless I hear it from the horses mouth, I don’t want to hear it and I especially don’t want to pass judgment.
I very much doubt that Lopez was going to sign for 1 year at that tiny amount with the Lakers. By the time he settled for that amount with the Bucks the FA season was nearly over and the Lakers had no means to offer anything above the minimum.