In his fourth game back with the Lakers on Thursday, point guard D’Angelo Russell exited in the first quarter due to a right ankle sprain and didn’t return.
As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham told reporters after the game that X-rays on Russell’s ankle came back negative. However, the veteran guard will undergo further evaluation on Friday to assess the severity of the injury and determine whether he’ll have to miss time.
For his part, Russell didn’t sound concerned about a lengthy absence. According to McMenamin, the 27-year-old said that he’s “not worried” about the ankle and didn’t rule out the possibility of returning to action for the Lakers’ next game on Sunday in Dallas.
The injury occurred after a Donte DiVincenzo layup with 4:31 left in the first quarter. Russell grabbed the ball and went to quickly inbound it, but accidentally stepped on DiVincenzo’s foot as the Warriors wing tried to get back on defense (video link). Russell stayed in the game until the next whistle and was subbed out with 3:12 remaining in the quarter.
“Wrong place, wrong time definitely,” Russell said of the injury. “Pretty unlucky for me.”
Although the Lakers are waiting for more clarity on Russell’s prognosis, they managed to defeat the Warriors without their starting point guard available for the last three quarters on Thursday –they’re now within 1.5 games of Golden State for the No. 10 seed in the West. Los Angeles has won three of four games since the trade deadline and looks like a more serious threat to make the playoffs with its revamped lineup.
“The pieces we added for defense, for offense looks pretty good,” Anthony Davis said after Thursday’s win. “I think we’re playing well. We’re clicking. … Hopefully D-Lo’s injury isn’t severe where he misses time. I think we got a complete team where we’re able to make a little run.”
Still need to work on defense, but Beasley and the rest of the new guys looked good together.
They are not making the playoffs!!
Dont let your laker hate blind you… they are a game and a half behind the Warriors and Jazz (the 9th and 10th seed). Their other competition is Portland, OKC, and Minnesota. If you honestly can’t see a world where the Lakers finish with a better record than 3 of those teams , then you aren’t watching the games. While improbable, Lakers can easily make the play in if healthy.
Technically he said playoffs not play in tournament! They might luck into thunder and jazz not being that motivated to get to the play in tournament and the blazers being a worse team !
Lakers are better and deeper. Plus their schedule can help them to move up. They will be playing teams they are chasing. They stay healthy they can make the play playoffs. Gotta admit Lakers made some good moves. Bamba, Beasley, Russell, Vanderbilt, Hachimura. Russell is the key. He and Bron come together. Then it can get done, playoffs.
An absence for Dlo will help the other new players get more shine as the black hole on offence isn’t out there…
It’ll help Ham define the roles and lead to better defence as well…
The Lakers are trash.The play in was put there to help Lebron in his demise. They are not making the playoffs this year.