As many expected, Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James (left foot soreness) has been ruled out of Friday’s matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
This will be the second consecutive missed game for the star forward, and this could be a “new normal” for the Lakers moving forward.
Head coach JJ Redick is focused on preserving the health of his team’s leader and will look to manage James’ minutes in the future. Redick says rest is critical right now, especially since he could tell the 40-year-old superstar was “gassed”.
“In game, he’s asked for a sub a couple times because he’s gassed,” Redick said Wednesday. “For us, we have to be cognizant as we play more and more games, just the cumulative effect of playing a lot of minutes, and Sunday, being banged up with the foot thing, it felt like a good opportunity for him to get some rest.”
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Assuming James plays in Sunday’s matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies, he will have a full eight days to recover and prepare to suit back up with his teammates. This may also give James enough time to handle his personal matters, as it was announced Wednesday he was absent from practice “due to personal reasons”.
On the other hand, Austin Reaves (left pelvic contusion) has been listed as “questionable” for Friday’s matchup against the Wolves.
Reaves was at practice on Wednesday and participated in most of the live drills. Coach Redick only kept him out of one physical drill just to be cautious, but the training staff is hopeful he will hit the floor Friday night.
Other players on the Lakers injury report include Jarred Vanderbilt (right foot surgery recovery/left knee effusion), Christian Wood (left knee surgery recovery), and Jaxson Hayes (right ankle sprain/contusion).
Hayes was expected to make a return to the floor soon, but Redick said his return is still unclear. Vanderbilt and Wood still have a journey ahead of them, and the team is hopeful they will be able to rejoin the roster sooner than later as the team is in serious need of adding more depth.
Redick continues to show signs of optimism for the rest of the Lakers’ journey ahead.
“Every team is gonna go through a stretch like this, good teams, bad teams. The games come so fast and you have an injury or you have a couple bad games and you go into a funk or into a shooting slump. This is it, this is the NBA. I felt that as a player, certainly feel it in this stretch as a coach.”
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