The Lakers shared some bad news on Friday, announcing that two of their rotation players will be sidelined for at least the next couple weeks due to injuries.
As Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet tweets, Lonnie Walker has been diagnosed with left knee tendinitis and Austin Reaves has a left hamstring strain. The plan is for the team to reevaluate both players in approximately two weeks, Trudell adds.
While neither injury will have as significant an on-court impact as the foot ailment that’s keeping star big man Anthony Davis on the shelf, Walker and Reaves have been the Lakers’ most-used players this season outside of Davis and LeBron James.
Walker has started all 32 games he has played for the Lakers this season and has averaged 29.8 minutes per contest, the club’s third-highest mark. He’s enjoying a career year so far, with 14.7 PPG on .455/.384/.875 shooting.
Reaves, who ranks fourth on the team with 28.9 minutes per game, has averaged 10.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.2 assists on .488/.360/.896 shooting in his 36 appearances.
With the two guards out of action until at least later this month, the Lakers will have to lean more heavily on the likes of Russell Westbrook, Dennis Schröder, and Patrick Beverley, as well as Juan Toscano-Anderson, who started Wednesday’s game. Kendrick Nunn and Max Christie will also move up the depth chart and could have a shot at cracking the rotation.
Troy Brown is another candidate for an increased role, though he’s dealing with a left quad strain and has been downgraded from questionable to out for Friday’s game vs. Atlanta, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.