Prior to the Los Angeles Lakers beginning their current five-game road trip, head coach Luke Walton said it was not a given Lonzo Ball would travel with the team. Ball suffered an MCL sprain that’s kept him out since Jan. 13.
Though, it was not until recently that the team clarified the rookie point guard sustained such an injury. Prior to the revelation, it was reported that Ball suffered from knee soreness that prompted an MRI which revealed a minor knee sprain.
After being limited to jogging on a treadmill, Ball at last hit the court to participate in some basketball activities.
But he’s yet to go through a practice and because of that will not play in the final two games of the road trip, according to Tania Ganguli of the L.A. Times:
Lonzo Ball will not play the rest of his trip. Today is their last practice and he won’t play without practicing. Will miss tomorrow in Brooklyn and Sunday in OKC.
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) February 1, 2018
Ball took part in some of Wednesday’s shootaround, but the issue and concern remains over his lateral movement.
An MCL sprain typically takes one to three weeks to recover from, and Saturday will mark three weeks since Ball suffered the injury in the overtime victory against the Dallas Mavericks.
Including time missed due to a sprained left shoulder, the Lakers lost their first eight games this season without Ball. They responded to win four in a row, but have since lost back-to-back contests.
Ball is averaging 10.2 points per game, 7.1 rebounds and 7.1 assists. He leads the team in assists and is slightly behind Julius Randle (7.3) in rebounding.
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