The Los Angeles Lakers released their injury report for Saturday’s game against the Utah Jazz and Rui Hachimura (left calf strain) is not on it so will be returning. Additionally, Cam Reddish (left knee soreness) and D’Angelo Russell (right knee contusion) are questionable while Christian Wood (migraine) is probable.
As has been the case for a while now, Anthony Davis (left ankle sprain/bone bruise) is probable and LeBron James (left ankle peroneal tendinopathy) is questionable but both Lakers stars should be able to play.
Hachimura has missed five straight games after suffering the calf injury on Dec. 31 against the New Orleans Pelicans. After getting an MRI, he was diagnosed with a Grade 1 calf strain and was considered to be day-to-day.
Him making his return on Saturday is not surprising considering how confident head coach Darvin Ham sounded when he gave his last update.
“He had a really good morning this morning with the stay ready group going up and down a little bit,” Ham said before Thursday’s game against the Phoenix Suns. “So we’ll see how he feels tonight, how he feels when he wakes up in the morning. But another really good day for him and hopefully it’s trending towards him hopefully being back out there in the next game. But we’ll see. We don’t want to put the cart in front of the horse, but he looked really, really good out there today.”
Hachimura had just entered the starting lineup before he got hurt so it will be interesting to see if he rejoins that group or goes back to his familiar bench role. Considering he has now missed five games, it’s likely that Hachimura will be on some sort of minutes restriction when he gets back on the court.
The Lakers could have a starting spot open in the short term though after Reddish injured his knee in the loss to the Suns. He hurt it at some point in the first half and was not able to return after halftime.
This is just the latest bad break for Reddish, who has missed a handful of games this season with minor ailments. Russell also hurt his knee in the loss to the Suns so their statuses will be worth monitoring.
It looks like the Lakers will be getting Wood back, however, after he missed one game with a migraine.
LeBron James says it’s impossible for Lakers to win without Anthony Davis
While a number of Lakers players have missed time due to injury this season, they luckily have had Davis in the lineup for a majority of games.
With how well Davis has been playing this season, he is essential to what the Lakers are trying to do, even so much so that James admitted the team cannot win without him.
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