Lakers Injury Report: LA Starter Departs Suns Game For Good
Heading into tonight’s (ongoing) Los Angeles Lakers-Phoenix Suns game, Cam Reddish's injury status had been up in the air since he suffered a facial laceration against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night.
He ultimately suited up, starting in the stead of still-injured forward Rui Hachimura.
It may have been too much, too soon. And now he’s hurt something else!
Per Jovan Buha of The Athletic, Reddish left the game for good near the beginning of the contest’s second quarter. By the third quarter, with LA trailing by double digits, he was officially ruled out. The 6’8” swingman reportedly has been struck down by left knee soreness. He finishes with zero points, on 0-for-1 shooting, in 8:25 of action.
This is a big loss for the Lakers, as Reddish has been arguably the team's best point-of-attack defender all season, and now having to square off with the lethal scoring trio of Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and Kevin Durant, Reddish will likely be heavily utilized on all 3 of them at various points throughout the game.
Cam had a great game against Toronto, as he looks to find a consistent jumper. The Duke product shot 4-6 from behind the arc on Tuesday night, which had followed 2 games in which he shot a combined 4-6 from behind the arc, suggesting major improvement from his 34.5% clip on the year.
Becoming a respectable three-point threat would be a huge advantage for the Lakers offense, as not only is spacing around LeBron James and Anthony Davis always important, but Reddish turning into a borderline double-digit scorer can fix LA's poor offense, that currently sits at 23rd in the league in terms of efficiency.
Darvin Ham raised the white flag at the top of the fourth quarter. Midway through, Phoenix leads 117-95.
