Lakers stars LeBron James (right foot soreness) and Anthony Davis (right foot stress injury) are both active for Wednesday’s game against the Clippers, tweets Mark Medina of NBA.com. Both players had previously been considered game-time decisions, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, the availability of the team’s two best players was up in the air leading into tonight’s game after going to overtime to defeat the Jazz in Utah on Tuesday night. James played in 38 minutes, while Davis played 42 — both high marks since returning from their respective foot injuries in March and January.
“The extra five minutes definitely didn’t help,” James said. “It definitely didn’t help but we needed to get the win.”
Wednesday will also mark the first time Davis has played in back-to-back games for several months, McMenamin notes, with the Lakers’ medical staff concerned about a possible re-injury due to overuse. Head coach Darvin Ham said the team wouldn’t risk jeopardizing anyone’s long-term health for a short-term situation — the Lakers and Clippers are tied with identical 41-38 records.
“If we see that they won’t have any issues, in terms of their health, and we’re not putting them at risk, then we’ll proceed,” Ham said. “If there’s any kind of question marks, we’ll walk through them, talk through them, and go from there.”
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Guard D’Angelo Russell (left foot soreness) was ruled out of Tuesday’s game for precautionary reasons, tweets McMenamin. Ham said Russell has been dealing with the issue for over a year and called it “bad timing” that it started to bother him recently. However, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN said on Get Up (YouTube link) that there was optimism Russell would be able to return on Wednesday and that was indeed the case — he started at point guard.
- Backup center Mohamed Bamba, who has been out for a month with a high left ankle sprain, was initially probable for Wednesday’s game (Twitter link via McMenamin) and was later upgraded to available. It will be interesting to see if Bamba gets minutes over Wenyen Gabriel, who has played well this season off the bench.
- In another story for ESPN, McMenamin explores how the Lakers can retain six players who helped reshape the roster. The six are Russell, Bamba, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura and Davon Reed, all of whom could be free agents in the offseason, though the Lakers are extremely unlikely to release Vanderbilt, who only has a small partial guarantee ($300K) on his team-friendly $4.7MM salary for 2023/24 (it becomes fully guaranteed if they don’t waive him by the end of June).
Clippers handling the Lakers by 20 at the half. Didn’t expect that.
It’s going to be easy for the Lakers to decide who to keep…
Beasley over Russell…
Better health and better fit next to LeBron…
Vanderbilt is an obvious retain…
Then do what you can to keep Bamba to allow AD to play at the 4 and Rui to play AD at the 5…
Then get some more depth with the savings of not paying Russell before the new CBA makes that harder…
No cap for that
No savings either, it’s internal spends and vet mins
If they retain Vanderbilt, Beasle, Bamba and Rui, they are over the cap and don’t have cap room. Basically vet minimums to fill out roster.
Lakers are trapped. Moves at the deadline saved their season this year but it is not sustainable. Lakers need to sell Bron and AD and see what kind of foundation they can lay for a rebuild next
Yeah, Lakers just gonna trade LeBron lol. You watch NBA or just belly button lint?
What is a realistic scenario where they move either of those guys for a reasonable return? At this point between age and injury history both players are most valuable to the Lakers, meaning theyd sell at a loss.
It just doesn’t make sense, sorry.
I think Dlo really wants to stay and make this work. He’d be willing to take less knowing he gets a starters role, plays with Bron and AD in LA and has a chance of the possible playoff and championship run. He’s been on a couple teams now, had varying roles and a lack of success, he’s probably looking to be comfortable spot and hopefully settle into a role and win games.
I can see him taking a 2 year 30 mil deal with a player option for the second year.
Next will be Vando, they need to keep him he’s been terrific. I don’t think he comes cheap either, he will definitely have a market. I’d say 2 years 30 mil would be fair.
After that I wouldn’t bother with Beasley, Rui or Bamba.
Bradley’s been shooting 38.5% from the field, his 35% from 3 is nearly a career low, and his 57% FT% is by far a career low. Although I expect him to bounce back but not with the lakers. Rui, is a poor man’s Kyle Kuzma. A PF that looks to score and space the floor but isn’t particularly efficient and is overvalued. Bamba is to injury prone and hasn’t done enough, I could see him having next to no market for his services and in which case he stays for the vets min on a price it contract. He is mates with LeBron and must like liking in LA and is a good fit in theory.
Reaves will like Caruso be to expensive for LA and good on him for proving his value and earning that bag. Schroder I can see looking for other opportunities, Lonnie Walker think he walks too.
So either way they will be busy in FA once again bringing guys in.
I think Tristan Thompson for the vets min would be a smart bit of business. Played with LeBron, helps AD move back to the 4, is a LA lifestyle kinda guy, works hard on the court. Pretty reliable but never amazes you. I could see Bron pushing for Crowder to join. Good 3 and D forward, versatile, knows what it takes to win etc.
I could see them pushing for Will Barton on the vets min and trying to use him as the shooter at the 2 spot. Terrance Davis could be the next young SG they get for cheap like Monk and Walker. Then lastly back up point, with next to no money left and not much options they go after with John Wall or Kemba Walker.
Next year
Dlo Davis Bron AD Thompson
Wall Barton Crowder Vando Bamba
Christie
Could even see Bron playing point guard again, in a small ball line up with good defenders like this
Bron Davis Crowder Vando AD
Vando isn’t a free agent next year