Wednesday was not a good night for the Los Angeles Lakers. The team gave up 149 points in a loss to the Golden State Warriors, but the bad news started much earlier as it was announced that point guard D’Angelo Russell will miss at least the next two weeks.
Russell received a PRP injection in his sore left knee that had been bothering him over the last couple of games and now the Lakers will be without their top playmaker for one of the toughest parts of their schedule.
Russell’s backcourt mate Nick Young made it clear that the Lakers will certainly miss Russell while he is out via Spectrum SportsNet (transcribed by Lakers Nation reporter Serena Winters):
Nick Young on news of D’Angelo Russell missing 2-3 weeks: "Two or three weeks is tough he’s a major key to this team.” (on @SpectrumSN)
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 24, 2016
Young isn’t lying as Russell is obviously a big part of the success of this team. Russell currently ranks second on the Lakers in scoring and leads the team in assists. He is more or less considered the best playmaker on the team as he is more than capable of creating shots for both himself and teammates.
The Lakers are in the midst of an extremely difficult part of their schedule. They have eight games over the next two weeks with seven of those games coming against teams .500 or better. The one team that isn’t over .500, the 6-10 New Orleans Pelicans, have won four straight games and are playing their best basketball of this early season.
With Russell gone, some of the scoring burden will fall on Young, who is enjoying a resurgent season. Veteran Jose Calderon has done a commendable job so far at stepping into the starting lineup, while Jordan Clarkson and Lou Williams will also have a lot of pressure fall onto their shoulders as well.
