Los Angeles Lakers rookie forward Brandon Ingram’s play has improved throughout the course of the season, leaving Laker fans looking forward to what is to come with the 19-year-old.
He has been playing the best basketball of his young career in recent weeks, but it appears that he has hit a little block in the road.
On Sunday night against the Portland Trail Blazers, Ingram missed the first game of his career as he has been dealing with patellar tendonitis.
According to Tania Ganguli of the LA Times, the injury has not progressed well enough and Ingram will sit out his second straight game Tuesday night when the Lakers host the Washington Wizards. Veteran Corey Brewer will get a second straight start in his place:
Brandon Ingram will not play tonight. Corey Brewer will start for him. Nick Young will also not play in case you were curious about that.
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) March 28, 2017
With the season beginning to wind down, the Lakers are focused on getting their young core as many minutes as possible, and the front office is also focused on the tank race with the Phoenix Suns so the Lakers can keep their top three protected pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, so that is the reason that Nick Young has joined Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov as veterans that have not been playing in recent weeks despite being healthy.
In recent weeks Ingram has gotten more aggressive on the offensive end of the floor, as he has scored in double digits in 10 straight games while shooting better than 50 percent in eight of those. In that stretch, he has averaged 14.8 points on 52.6 percent shooting.
Overall in 72 games this season, Ingram averaged 9.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game while shooting 39.9 percent from the floor and 29.6 from three-point range.
He leads all rookies in minutes played, so even if the results aren’t there the young forward is getting valuable experience at the NBA level that will help him in the future. Hopefully, Tuesday night is the last game he will miss and could get back on the court with his teammates for Thursday night’s game.