Los Angeles Lakers Injury Update: Lonzo Ball To Miss A Week With Shoulder Injury
The Los Angeles Lakers are now dealing with yet another injury to one of their important players. It was just confirmed today that Lonzo Ball will miss at least a week due to a shoulder sprain he received in Saturday’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. Lonzo reportedly injured it the second quarter and an MRI today revealed the sprain.
What this means going forward is that the Lakers will now have to find another playmaker. Who will Luke Walton lean on now?
Lakers announce Lonzo Ball diagnosed with left shoulder sprain, will miss at least one week pic.twitter.com/NOfgFMkn3i
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 24, 2017
By all accounts, Walton should insert Tyler Ennis or Josh Hart into the starting lineup to replace Ball. For the season, Ennis has averaged just four minutes per game and has done very little in terms of production. Hart has played well lately and should benefit the most from Ball’s absence. Saturday night, Hart started in place of Brandon Ingram and scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds with three assists. Hart is versatile enough to play three different positions.
[MarkAds]But can he be counted on to shoulder the load at the point?
The good news for the Los Angeles Lakers is while they will play at least the next five games without Ball, three of them will be at home. That’s important as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is not allowed to travel with the team outside of California. With the Lakers already without the services of Brook Lopez, the team will need to learn on each other extra hard in the next few games.
While each injury is painful, this will be a good opportunity for the young Lakers to band together. Despite his recent struggles, Lonzo Ball has begun to shoot the Ball rather well lately from three-point range. The Lakers are still looking for an identity this season which has been pretty hard to do thanks to trade rumors and salary cap distractions. Maybe with Lonzo Ball out, Walton will see another dynamic to the team.
[BXReporter]
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
