The Los Angeles Lakers witnessed another scary sight with one of their young players on Tuesday night with rookie point guard D’Angelo Russell falling hard on the floor against the Utah Jazz.
Russell was down on the floor for quite some time before getting up and being helped to the locker room by the Lakers training staff.
It was later determined that Russell had a bruised glute and was expected to return, but with halftime approaching he was officially ruled out for the rest of the game, according to ESPN’s Baxter Holmes:
Update — Lakers say D’Angelo Russell (bruised glute) will NOT return tonight.
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) October 7, 2015
Keeping Russell on the sidelines is the safe play for the Lakers. There’s no reason to push him during the preseason if there’s risk of injury getting worse over the course of the next few weeks.
The Lakers will head back to California once the two-game series with the Jazz is officially in the books. Russell’s status for the next preseason game against the Toronto Raptors on Oct. 8 might be up in the air, but the injury doesn’t appear to be serious at this point.