The Los Angeles Lakers may have won two straight games and could be starting to turn the corner in a rough season, but the hits keep coming when it comes to the NBA’s coronavirus (COVID-19) health and safety protocols.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Lakers assistant coach David Fizdale, who recently stepped in for head coach Frank Vogel while he was battling the virus, has entered COVID protocols.
Los Angeles Lakers assistant David Fizdale has entered the league's Covid protocols, sources tell ESPN. Fizdale was acting head coach for six games in Frank Vogel's absence.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 3, 2022
Few Lakers players and coaches have been able to avoid coming down with the virus this season. From false positives for LeBron James and Russell Westbrook to nearly half the team dealing with the protocols at one point, the Lakers and most teams around the league haven’t been able to avoid what the pandemic has done to professional sports as of late.
Hopefully, as the new year gets underway, the virus and its variants will become less and less of a problem. As of right now, however, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down with so many players and coaches in professional sports around the world having to miss time after a positive test.
As for the team, the Lakers will get back underway on Tuesday as they’ll go head to head against the division rival Sacramento Kings at Crypto.com Arena before having a two-day break ahead of their matchup with the Atlanta Hawks on Friday in Los Angeles.
Vogel praises Fizdale for head coaching job while he was away
Even though the Lakers went 1-5 in the six games that Fizdale acted as head coach, Vogel still had high praise for the job he did in his absence.
“I thought that Coach Fiz did a phenomenal job, not a decent job, a phenomenal job in my absence. I think our team grew. It didn’t show up, unfortunately, in the win/loss column as much as we all would’ve wanted it to, but our team grew during this stretch. I think some of the growth areas that we saw are gonna pay dividends for us going forward in helping us win games.”
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