The Los Angeles Lakers announced that Max Christie was ruled out of the second half of Thursday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets with a right ankle sprain.
The injury came at the end of the second quarter when Christie rolled his ankle driving to the basket and getting fouled. It comes at an especially unfortunate time considering the Lakers have been hit by the injury bug hard lately.
Christie actually got a rare start against the Nuggets after D’Angelo Russell was ruled out shortly before tipoff due to a knee issue.
In 15 minutes of first-half action before going down with his own injury, Christie had seven points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal on 2-of-7 shooting.
It remains to be seen how serious the ankle sprain is for Christie, but it’s possible he is forced to miss at least a couple games, which would leave the Lakers even more shorthanded.
Max Christie didn’t pay attention to trade rumors
The NBA trade deadline has come and gone and the Lakers did not make any moves despite being linked to a variety of players.
Being 20 years old with a lot of promise, Christie’s name naturally came up in some trade rumors, although he revealed that he doesn’t pay attention to them since they are out of his control.
“Yeah, that’s out of my control,” Christie said of the rumors. “I’ve said it a lot of times throughout the year, just show up and be a pro. That’s all I can do. Be a professional, show up on time, work as hard as I can. Like I said, the trade rumors are out of my control so there’s nothing I can do about that and there’s no point in worrying about it if I can’t do anything about it. So me just showing up and being the best version of myself, being the best version I can for this team, or if I end up on another team then whatever team that is. Right now it’s the Lakers so all I have to do is be the best version of myself and try to be the best player I can be.”
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