The Los Angeles Lakers released their injury report for Friday night’s game against the Indiana Pacers, which is the second night of a back-to-back, and LeBron James (left elbow contusion, left foot arthritis), Deandre Ayton (left knee soreness) and Maxi Kleber (lumbar back strain) have all been ruled out.
Everyone else should be good to go as L.A. returns home and looks to get back on track after a tough road loss to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.
Kleber was ruled out of the loss and now will miss his second straight contest with the back issue, while James and Ayton were both injured during the game.
Ayton went down five minutes into the night and was eventually ruled out for the rest of the game. It remains to be seen how serious the knee injury is, but Jaxson Hayes will enter the starting lineup in his place and JJ Redick expressed confidence that he can hold down the fort. The Lakers will also go small at times, while Drew Timme could get some rotation minutes as their backup center.
Meanwhile, James fell on his elbow late in the game and had to come out. While he eventually returned, he said afterwards that the elbow was feeling sore so it’s not a surprise to see him sitting out given the short turnaround versus the Pacers.
Even without three key players though, the Lakers should be able to take care of business as Indiana has lost seven straight and comes in with a 15-47 record on the year. That’s not to say L.A. can take them lightly, but having Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and others in the lineup should be enough to get back in the win column.
Marcus Smart: Deandre Ayton wants to help Lakers
Deandre Ayton has received a lot of criticism lately, but Marcus Smart came to his defense after the Lakers’ loss to the Nuggets, stating that the big man wants to stay healthy and help the team but just hasn’t been able to.
“He’s down. For him, it sucked for him not to be out there. He tried to go and it just didn’t feel right for him. It sucks. We definitely could’ve used him. I know as of lately, he’s been getting a lot of backlash for his effort and play. He understands it. I know it may not seem like it, but he does. And he wants to do good and he wants to help this team. I think that’s what’s more frustrating for him because he’s trying but the way he’s trying isn’t working and he’s still trying to figure it out. But he definitely was down tonight, he just actually left talking to me, saying how he wished he could’ve been out there and how sorry he was. But he can’t control that he couldn’t go and didn’t feel it. Hopefully next game he’s ready to go, we could use him.”
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