During his sophomore campaign with the Los Angeles Lakers, point guard D’Angelo Russell has experienced some extreme highs and lows. The Ohio State has dealt with numerous injuries while also trying to see how he can flourish in Luke Walton’s system.
In the win over the Indiana Pacers last week, Russell went down with another knee injury which initially looked bad enough to end his season potentially. Along with the MCL sprain, Russell was diagnosed with a bone bruise and a calf strain.
Although the concern was Russell would miss a lot of time due to this recent bout with injuries, the second-year guard will likely be out of the lineup for a couple of weeks. Even Russell himself downplayed the severity of the injuries, via Thuc Nhi Nguyen of the OC Register:
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Russell said. “It’s not that serious.”
At this point, with the Lakers winning only six games since starting the season 10-10, it doesn’t seem to matter which players they have on the floor. Los Angeles continues to struggle to find their rhythm again after the promising start and were dealt a major blow to their confidence level suffering the worst loss in franchise history to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.
Although Russell will be on the shelf for the next couple of weeks, the Lakers were able to get Larry Nance Jr. back on the floor. Nance missed a month with a bone bruise of his own after also seemingly suffering a knee injury that looked worse that it was.
Nance and company will get back to work on Wednesday with the team continuing their road trip in Oregon facing Damian Lillard’s Portland Trail Blazers for the third time this season.