{"id":114581,"date":"2024-12-28T19:19:58","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T00:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=114581"},"modified":"2024-12-28T19:19:58","modified_gmt":"2024-12-29T00:19:58","slug":"lakers-getting-healthier-full-squad-4-game-homestand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/28\/lakers-getting-healthier-full-squad-4-game-homestand\/","title":{"rendered":"JJ Redick Optimistic That Lakers Are Getting Healthier, Having A Full Squad During 4-Game Homestand Strong Possibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> have a chance to “get right” over the next few weeks. While LA<\/a> has been playing fairly well lately, the fact that the Lakers<\/a> are getting healthy is providing optimism for the team, according to Dan Weike of the Los Angeles Times.<\/a><\/p>\n

Beginning tonight, Los Angeles plays 11 of its next 14 games at Crypto.com Arena, leaving the Lakers with just three road contests during this stretch. However, the Lakers are playing outside the city confines once (Dallas and Houston on the same trip) as they face the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles (17-13) has played the third most road games in the league, so a season-long home stretch is a much-valued commodity. The Lakers are 8-9 in road games with a minus -6.6 scoring margin.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles begins a four-game homestand against Sacramento<\/a> (13-17), which is dealing with some turmoil after firing head<\/a> coach Mike Brown<\/a> yesterday. The Lakers have a 9-4 record with a +2.8 scoring margin at Crypto. However, they are just 2-4 over their last home games, including dropping a 117-114 decision to Detroit on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve played together, tried to play the right way,\u201d coach\u00a0JJ Redick<\/a> said after practice. \u201cI think our game plan discipline has been excellent. So, I like where our team is at. I like where our team is trending. I\u2019m going to really like it when we\u2019re completely healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

JJ Redick Optimistic That Lakers Are Getting Healthier, Having A Full Squad During 4-Game Homestand Strong Possibility<\/h2>\n

Los Angeles is going for a sweep of Sacramento. The Lakers are 3-0 against the Kings, outscoring them by an average of 115.7 to 108.7, though two of those have been decided by four points.<\/p>\n

Speaking of healthy, it appears that the Lakers are finally getting there. The Lakers do have 10 players listed on their injury report, having ruled out five. But two players\u2014Bronny James<\/a> and Maxwell Lewis<\/a>\u2014are on G-League assignments.<\/p>\n

Lakers Getting Healthy, Though There Are Still Question Marks<\/h3>\n

D’Angelo Russell<\/a> appears to be on track to return after missing the Lakers’ Christmas Day<\/a> victory over Golden State<\/a> with a thumb injury. Russell, who has steadily gotten better this season, is listed as probable for Saturday’s game after practicing yesterday.<\/p>\n

Anthony Davis<\/a>, LeBron James,<\/a> and Rui Hachimura<\/a> are all questionable for Saturday’s contest. Davis was limited to seven minutes on Christmas Day<\/a> and didn’t practice on Friday. However, Davis said he planned on playing against the Kings after the Warriors game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James and Hachimura each picked up an illness on Friday and didn’t practice. Their status for the game will likely be determined by game time.<\/p>\n

Like Russell, Jaxson Hayes participated in noncontact drills during Friday’s practice. That is outstanding news for the Lakers, as Hayes has been sidelined since November 26 after suffering consecutive ankle injuries.<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt and Wood Close To Returning<\/h3>\n

Redick told Weinke that Hayes \u201cmoved well\u201d in practice Friday. If Hayes can play, that will be a big deal, as some of the Lakers’ struggles are due to them being shorthanded up front. Even if Hayes is ruled out, he should be back soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cOffensively for us, just the rim running, the pace with which he can get from one action to the next as a big. He\u2019s good in the half-court at screening, rolling, and getting back to a second action. And [Russell], with some of the lob stuff, he just, he puts pressure on the rim as a roller,\u201d Redick said of what the Lakers have missed without Hayes. \u201cAnd then defensively, he had his best stretch for us before being injured. He had a four- or five-game stretch where he was great on both ends, but he was also crashing. He was getting offensive rebounds for us. So we\u2019ve missed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Davis, Hachimura, and James cannot attend Saturday’s game, the same can be said for them.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jalen Hood-Schifino<\/a> has been ruled out for the 11th straight due to a hamstring injury. Jarred Vanderbilt<\/a> and Christian Wood<\/a> are still a little ways from making their season debut.<\/p>\n

In fact, there is no official timetable for Vanderbilt or Wood’s season debuts. But Redick said he hopes both bigs can play before the team heads to Texas.<\/p>\n

After tonight’s contest, the Lakers are off until New Year’s Eve versus Cleveland<\/a>. They then host Portland on January 2 and Atlanta on January 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers have a chance to “get right” over the next few weeks. While LA has been playing fairly well lately, the fact that the Lakers are getting healthy is providing optimism for the team, according to Dan Weike of the Los Angeles Times. Beginning tonight, Los Angeles plays 11 of its next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":114671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,26,62],"tags":[240,3145,2941,2279,38,4745,1749],"class_list":["post-114581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-christian-wood","tag-jarred-vanderbilt","tag-jj-redick","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba-injuries","tag-rui-hachimura"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114581"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114676,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114581\/revisions\/114676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}