{"id":64705,"date":"2024-02-22T08:48:40","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T13:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=64705"},"modified":"2024-02-22T08:48:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T13:48:40","slug":"lakers-news-christian-wood-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/22\/lakers-news-christian-wood-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers News: Backup Center Out Two Weeks with Knee Swelling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No matter how many times the Lakers get close to figuring things out, injuries emerge to hinder their progress. A team that\u2019s ninth in the West and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LADEig\/status\/1760014528178200713\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3.5 games back of the fifth seed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will have to trudge on without another rotation player. Backup big man\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/woodch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christian Wood<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is out for the next two weeks as he deals with swelling in his left knee.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There is optimism that Wood\u2019s knee injury is minor and he will be able to return within the initial projected injury timeline, a source familiar with the situation told ESPN <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zCMhAUYwHS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/zCMhAUYwHS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dave McMenamin (@mcten) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mcten\/status\/1760506094017982555?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 22, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the Lakers&#8217; rotation already limited, how does this impact them with 26 games to go, and who will need to step up in Wood\u2019s absence?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Lakers News: Backup Center Out Two Weeks with Knee Swelling<\/h2>\n<h3><b>Background<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christian Wood has excelled in his role thus far. The 28-year-old center averaged 6.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 0.7 blocks per game prior to the All-Star break. He also shot 46% from the field, 30% from three and 70% from the free-throw line. After being out of the rotation for brief periods in December and January, Wood came back and responded well. Since returning to his role, Wood put up 6.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and one assist per game across 17 contests. He continued to make an impact that went beyond scoring, consistently crashing the boards and protecting the paint.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Wood missing the first week of March at minimum, LA will need its frontcourt members to step up in a big way against elite competition.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Who Needs to Step Up?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wood\u2019s absence leaves a noticeable gap between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hayesja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaxson Hayes<\/a>. AD has put together an award-winning-caliber season, but the Lakers have also succeeded because of the production behind him\u2014and Wood has played a key role in that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is not to diminish the contributions of Hayes, who has certainly shown out at times during the year\u2014for instance, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Dzh13m2zB7Q?si=wuBzlQH5po3DEJ__\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">his 16-point, 10-rebound outing against Boston<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. If anything, Wood being sidelined will allow the 23-year-old to display his skills in a larger role. In seven games this month (16.7 minutes per game), Hayes averaged 6.7 points, 5 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game on 75% shooting from the field and 78% from the line. He showed flashes of how he could play going forward, and these next two weeks are a chance to prove himself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s also a chance that the Lakers go small in certain lineups, relying on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LeBron James<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hachiru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rui Hachimura<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to create offense and protect the paint. Both have had experience playing the five in their respective careers as Lakers. Running small ball has led to mixed results for the Lakers, but it may be what\u2019s needed in the short-term, especially in minutes without AD.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking of which, the brunt of the offense will continue to run through Davis. The nine-time All-Star has averaged nearly 25 points, 12.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists on 55% shooting from the field. He has also made his case for Defensive Player of the Year, averaging 2.5 blocks per game (5th in the NBA) and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/nba\/ask\/nba-defensive-rebounds-leaders-2023-2024\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nine defensive rebounds<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (second behind <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sabondo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Domantas Sabonis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). Wood\u2019s absence should not (and will not be) an excuse to run AD into the ground with high minutes. It will only force other Lakers to step up behind Davis in an attempt to match his stellar production.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The Last Word<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christian Wood\u2019s injury is another hurdle the Lakers will have to jump over. But judging by their performances prior to the All-Star break, that shouldn\u2019t be a problem. Aside from LeBron and AD, expect Hachimura and Hayes to increase their production as Wood recovers, and look for other players to make an impact on the boards as well as the defensive end.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No matter how many times the Lakers get close to figuring things out, injuries emerge to hinder their progress. A team that\u2019s ninth in the West and 3.5 games back of the fifth seed will have to trudge on without another rotation player. Backup big man\u00a0Christian Wood is out for the next two weeks as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":64707,"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":[1608,26,62,3],"tags":[240,3145,1962,202,1749],"class_list":["post-64705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","category-news","tag-anthony-davis","tag-christian-wood","tag-jaxson-hayes","tag-nba-news","tag-rui-hachimura"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64705","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\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}