Juan Toscano-Anderson joined the Los Angeles Lakers’ injury list after the forward sprained his ankle in Wednesday’s loss to the Toronto Raptors.
L.A. had already entered the game without Patrick Beverley, Wenyen Gabriel and LeBron James — who nurse minor injuries — as well as Anthony Davis, who fell ill earlier in the week.
Toscano-Anderson got hurt in the fourth quarter of the 126-113 loss when he stepped on Thomas Bryant’s foot as he was defending Pascal Siakam’s drive into the paint. After rolling his ankle, the 29-year-old wing struggled to put any weight on the injured leg and had to be helped off the court.
Lakers head coach Darvin Ham couldn’t immediately provide a timeline for Toscano-Anderson’s return but said it was tough to see a valuable role player go down with an injury, via NBA.com:
“He will be re-evaluated. He has something going on with his ankle so he will get an MRI tomorrow and we will know more. But, to that point, to answer your question, it sucks. One, he is a good soldier for us. He brings championship credibility from a championship organization in Golden State. You can never have too many of those guys — guys who are going to go out and be selfless whether they get minutes or not get minutes. Just be a pro, keeping themselves ready, keeping themselves functioning properly, thinking properly. You know, all aligned within the spirit of the group. It just sucks to see him get hurt.”
With so many Lakers players out, Toscano-Anderson had a chance to spend some more time on the court than usual against the Raptors. Toscano-Anderson averages 2.2 points and 1.8 rebounds this season, clocking 10.4 minutes per game in 14 appearances.
After winning eight of the previous 10 games, L.A. suffered back-to-back losses this week with its injury list growing.
James says it’s ‘next man up’ for Lakers if Davis misses time with illnesss
Davis left Tuesday’s loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers after his flu-like symptoms worsened in the first quarter. James has said the Lakers need to embrace a “next man up” mentality if the eight-time All-Star misses more games due to his illness.
“Next man up. But that’s a tall task, figuratively and literally, for AD has been doing for us over the last few weeks,” James said.
“I thought Thomas came in and gave us some great minutes, you know, he was high-energy, worked the glass really well. But it was tough for us. Once AD went out, we had to kind of switch up our whole game plan from what we were going to try to do.
“But we gave as much as we could, had a couple opportunities in the fourth but they broke away with it.”
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