In the Los Angeles Lakers second preseason game against the Denver Nuggets, rookie point guard Lonzo Ball suffered a mild left ankle sprain.
The injury was not believed to be a serious one, as Ball himself said he was ok and considered himself day-to-day, but he was held out of the next game and it was recently announced that he also would be missing Sunday’s game against the Sacramento Kings.
With only two preseason games left after Sunday and the regular season just over a week away, Lakers head coach Luke Walton said it is a possibility that Ball is held out the remainder of the preseason, via Bill Oram of the Southern California News Group:
“I hope not,” he said, “but yeah that’s a possibility. It is different with every player. He is new to the team so we got to see how long these types of injuries take him to come back from. We’d like to have him back but again we are not going to rush him back just to try to get him out there.”
Walton added that he hopes Ball will be ready for the season opener on Oct. 19 against the Los Angeles Clippers, but they are not going to rush him back:
“I assume he will be back by then,” Walton said. “If he’s not ready to play basketball and really cut and move and do everything that you need that ankle to do for you, we are not going to play him.”
With Ball out, backup Tyler Ennis will continue to see more playing time, starting in his place. The Lakers do not have as much depth at point guard as other positions, although Jordan Clarkson can play the position if needed and forward Brandon Ingram also recently said that he expects to play some point guard.
Getting Ball, the team’s No. 2 overall pick from this past draft, healthy has to be the Lakers top priority at the moment though.
