The Los Angeles Lakers went into their road matchup with the Boston Celtics on Thursday night extremely shorthanded with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Cam Reddish and Gabe Vincent all out of the lineup. To make matters worse, Jarred Vanderbilt injured himself at the end of the second quarter and was eventually ruled out for the rest of the game with right foot soreness.
The injury comes at an especially unfortunate time considering that Vanderbilt has been playing extremely well in recent weeks. He got the start in James’ pace against the Celtics and in 16 minutes before getting injured, he had 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists and three steals.
Vanderbilt missed the first couple months of the regular season with a heel injury and even after returning, he was open about not being 100% healthy.
The extent of this foot injury remains to be seen, but the hope is that it’s not serious and Vanderbilt won’t be forced to miss significant time. The heel injury was on his left foot, so this is a new injury. He will likely undergo more testing to determine the exact severity of the injury.
Rui Hachimura started the third quarter in Vanderbilt’s place and will likely continue to see increased minutes moving forward if he misses time. Considering how much the Lakers have struggled defensively lately though, having to be without their best perimeter defender in Vanderbilt would be a significant blow.
The Lakers have two more games on their road trip before returning home, so it will be a challenge moving forward without some key guys in the lineup.
Jarred Vanderbilt believes Lakers should be defensive-minded to start games
Before entering the starting lineup against Boston, Jarred Vanderbilt has spent a majority of the season coming off the bench for the Lakers.
Given their recent defensive struggles though many have called for him to start and he agreed that the team should be ‘defensive-minded’ to start games.
“We just got to lock in on both ends for 48 minutes. I think we should be a defensive-minded team to start the game. I think our defense should ignite our offense. Let’s get stops, let’s get steals, let’s get out in transition, getting open looks. So I think our prime attention needs to be on that end of the floor. We got a lot of guys that can score the ball and put the ball in the basket, so I think we need to hang our hats on the defensive end.”
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