The Los Angeles Lakers have struggled through the first half of the regular season, currently sitting at 19-21, and injuries have played a big role in that.
Despite LeBron James and Anthony Davis staying healthy for almost all of the Lakers’ games, just about everyone else has missed time with the most recent injury coming to Cam Reddish.
Reddish injured his knee during the Lakers’ recent win over the Toronto Raptors, being forced to leave the game late in the fourth quarter. The wing was able to play in each of the Lakers’ next two games against the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz although on both occasions, he played in the first half and was not able to come back for the second half.
Lakers head coach Darvin Ham said that Reddish would be evaluated when the team got back to L.A. and then he was eventually ruled out of Monday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder with what the team decided to call left knee effusion.
It appears that Reddish is expected to miss the next few games with the knee issue, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
ESPN sources with @wojespn: Los Angeles Lakers F Cam Reddish could miss a few games with left knee soreness. Reddish has averaged 6.5 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 33 games. He’s started 26.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 15, 2024
This seems to be the best course of action for Reddish and the Lakers as trying to play through the injury clearly wasn’t working the last couple of games.
The hope is that sitting out for a week or so will help the swelling subside, but as the Lakers saw with Gabe Vincent, knee effusion is not something to mess around with and could develop into a worse injury if not treated properly.
Reddish has been able to play in 33 games so far this season, starting 26 of them and averaging 6.5 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.2 steals while shooting 33.7% from 3-point range.
In his absence, guys like Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura and Max Christie should get some more playing time as the Lakers look to turn their season around.
Lakers have not discussed trading Austin Reaves
With the trade deadline less than a month away and the Lakers currently struggling, they have been linked to a lot of players on the market that could improve the roster.
It may take parting with Austin Reaves in order to make a significant upgrade, although to this point the Lakers have not discussed that possibility.
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