The Los Angeles Lakers had their entire roster available to them on Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Clippers. Not only did both LeBron James and Anthony Davis suit up, but point guard D’Angelo Russell was back after missing Tuesday’s game due to foot soreness.
Injuries have been an issue for Russell since returning to the Lakers at the trade deadline. A sprained ankle kept him out of six games while hip soreness forced him out of two more at the end of March. Now, it is foot soreness that forced him out of another contest, though he was ready to go against the Clippers.
Russell was solid in his return, finishing with 15 points and seven assists in the Lakers’ loss. Afterwards, Russell spoke on the injury, noting that he feels he doesn’t help the team when he’s on the floor at a less than ideal level, via NBA Interviews:
“Trying to get right. Playing at 50% isn’t helping the team so whenever I’m more than that I’m ready to play.”
The Lakers need all of their players at full strength in order to be at their best and Russell simply was not that on Tuesday. The guard used that day in order to ensure that he would be good to go on Wednesday and thinks he will be fine moving forward:
“We had a back-to-back so to get that day off on the first side of it and try to become more fresher for this second end of it obviously did me justice to come out and be pain-free, so I’ll be alright.”
The foot soreness is something that seemingly came out of nowhere for Russell leading some to wonder exactly what caused it. Russell admitted that it is simply wear and tear from a long season, and something he’ll have to manage the rest of the year:
“Definitely something to manage. Just wear and tear, long season.”
At this stage of the year, nearly every player in the league is banged up and sore in some way. The NBA season is a long and grueling one and Russell, like many others, is feeling the effects of that.
Ideally, Russell and the rest of the Lakers won’t need to sit out any other games as the team needs everyone locked in for a run in the postseason.
LeBron James believes ‘scheduling conflict’ hurt Lakers in loss to Clippers
The Lakers as a whole looked like a tired team against the Clippers and that is likely because they were. The team was coming off a four-game road trip with the final contest being an overtime win the prior night in Utah, meanwhile the Clippers hadn’t played since Saturday.
LeBron James believes that definitely hurt the Lakers, calling the game one of the toughest of the year before noting that the ‘scheduling conflict’ got the best of the team on Wednesday.
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