The Los Angeles Lakers completed an impressive comeback against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday, but the team had a bit of a scare involving Julius Randle.
The second-year forward limped to the bench near the end of the game, somewhat tarnishing a great night.
Thankfully for the Lakers, the injury doesn’t appear to be serious as Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times reports that Randle simply tweaked his ankle:
Julius Randle "tweaked" his ankle, the Lakers are saying. Doesn't sound serious.
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) December 23, 2015
The Lakers had been decimated by injuries over the last couple of seasons and Randle was a major loss last season as he broke his fibula on opening night last year. This season, the Lakers have been much more fortunate and actually have lost the fewest games to injury in the NBA so far.
Randle has been one of the Lakers best players so far this season. He leads the team in rebounds and has 12 double-doubles so far this season which is more than some big-name stars like Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard, and LeBron James.
In a season in which all eyes are on the future of the franchise, Randle has garnered a lot of attention and losing him for any period of time would be a big loss. For now, it looks pretty minor and that is a good sign for Randle and the Lakers as the team must quickly travel home to host the Oklahoma City Thunder.