- Lakers guard Austin Reaves suffered a left pelvic contusion, but no structural damage, on a hard fall in Friday’s game against Oklahoma City, per Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times (Bluesky link). Reaves was injured when he landed on his back after being hit by Isaiah Hartenstein and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on a drive to the basket. Reaves stayed in the game to shoot his free throws, but went to the locker room shortly afterward. Woike adds that he traveled with the team on its four-game road trip and will be listed as questionable for Sunday’s game at Utah.
Joel Embiid (left knee injury management and personal reasons) will miss a fourth straight game on Saturday when the Sixers face the Pistons in Detroit, while Kyle Lowry (right hip strain) will sit out for a fifth in a row, according to Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
The good news for the 76ers is that Paul George, who has been out since November 20 due to a left knee bone bruise, has been upgraded to questionable and appears on track to be a game-time decision.
“We did do a good amount of contact and playing as well, so it was good to see,” head coach Nick Nurse said after George participated in Friday’s practice. “He looked pretty good out there.”
As for the status of Embiid’s knee? “The swelling’s gone down a bit,” Nurse said. “Still some soreness there. That’s about all I can say.”
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon participated in Saturday’s practice and is nearing a return, head coach Michael Malone said today (Twitter link via Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette). Gordon has been on the shelf for Denver’s past 10 games as he recovers from a right calf strain. His return will be a boon for the Nuggets, who have a +10.3 net rating in Gordon’s 212 minutes on the court this season.
- Clippers swingman Norman Powell has missed the team’s past six games due to a left hamstring issue but is expected to return for the four-game homestand that begins on Sunday vs. Denver, writes Janis Carr of The Orange County Register. Powell is the Clippers’ leading scorer so far this season with an average of 23.3 points per game.
- Hornets center Nick Richards will be available to play on Saturday against Atlanta for the first time since November 1 after recovering from a broken rib, tweets Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer. With Mark Williams unavailable so far this fall, Richards was Charlotte’s starting center prior to his injury.
- Lakers guard Bronny James, who hasn’t played in either the NBA or the G League since November 17 due to a left heel contusion, will begin his ramp-up process after team doctors determined in a Friday exam that the injury is healing, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN. James will be reevaluated in one week.
Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard is “progressing well” in his recovery from the right knee issue that has sidelined him this fall and postponed his season debut, head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters on Friday (Twitter video link via Law Murray of The Athletic).
“He’s been able to get on the court and do some things on the court, which is good for us,” Lue said. “Just still checking every box, making sure he’s doing the right things and his workouts are really good. Making sure we don’t let it get to the next step until he checks those boxes. Our medical staff has done a great job with that, making sure that we make sure he’s 100% when he comes back.”
Following Paul George‘s departure in free agency and without Leonard available to open the season, the Clippers weren’t viewed as a serious contender in the Western Conference entering this season.
However, they’ve held their own in Kawhi’s absence, posting a 12-9 record through the first quarter of the season, good for eighth in a competitive Western Conference. Lue said on Friday that Leonard is “very excited” about what he’s seen from the team so far and is looking forward to helping out when he returns. Still, there’s no set timeline for when that will happen.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- When they replaced D’Angelo Russell with Cam Reddish in their starting lineup earlier this season, the Lakers were making an effort to solidify their defense. Their most recent lineup tweak – elevating rookie Dalton Knecht and moving Reddish back to the second unit – suggests they’re leaning more into their greatest strength, their offensive firepower, says Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Before being held to a season-low 93 points on Friday against the NBA’s No. 1 defense (Oklahoma City), the Lakers had the league’s fourth-best offensive rating (116.3).
- James Ham of The Kings Beat takes a closer look at what newly added forward Jae Crowder brings to the table for the Kings, pointing out that the 34-year-old is the kind of defensive-minded veteran that head coach Mike Brown likes to rely on. Crowder figures to move from the starting five to the bench once DeMar DeRozan is healthy, but he’ll likely still get regular minutes, Ham writes.
- Suns guard Bradley Beal appears to have avoided a major setback after exiting Wednesday’s game early due to calf and ankle soreness. As Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (Twitter links) relays, Beal (left calf injury management) and Jusuf Nurkic (right quad contusion) are both officially listed as questionable for Saturday’s game vs. Golden State, though head coach Mike Budenholzer told reporters on Friday that he viewed them as probable to play.
Lakers center Jaxson Hayes has re-sprained his right ankle and is expected to be out for the next two-to-three weeks, according to Shams Charania and Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link).
Hayes initially missed six games earlier this month due to a right ankle sprain. He re-aggravated the issue on Tuesday in his second game back and has been inactive for two more contests since then, undergoing an MRI on Friday to assess the severity of the injury, per head coach J.J. Redick (Twitter link via Jovan Buha of The Athletic).
With Christian Wood still recovering from left knee surgery, Christian Koloko being integrated slowly following his year-long absence due to a blood clot issue, and Anthony Davis preferring not to play all of his minutes at center, Hayes has been a regular part of Los Angeles’ rotation when healthy. The big man has averaged 6.4 points and 4.5 rebounds in 17.5 minutes per game across 11 outings.
Without Hayes available for at least the next couple weeks, the Lakers will lean more on Davis and Koloko for those minutes in the middle and figure to occasionally deploy small-ball lineups that feature a forward like LeBron James or Rui Hachimura as the de facto five.
Hayes also remains under investigation by the NBA, as the league reopened its probe into a 2021 domestic incident after new video surfaced. It’s unclear how long that investigation will take, but if it results in a suspension, Hayes would have to serve it once he’s healthy, not while he’s still injured.
Jae Crowder went from being out of the league at the beginning of the week to starting for the Kings on Wednesday. After signing with the team earlier in the day, Crowder was immediately inserted into the lineup. The veteran forward played 27 minutes and contributed eight points, four rebounds and a steal as Sacramento defeated Minnesota to snap a four-game losing streak.
“He knows what it takes to win,” coach Mike Brown told Chris Biderman of the Sacramento Bee. “Not only that, he’s a grown a– man, and he can guard fours, he can guard fives. If somebody gets going that’s in that realm, he ain’t going to back down. He’s going to fight that much harder. You saw it tonight. You’re not going to stop Julius Randle, but you got to fight him.”
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- Bradley Beal had another injury setback on Wednesday. The Suns wing left their game midway through the fourth quarter with left calf and ankle soreness. Beal was playing just his second game since a five-game absence due to a calf strain. “He had a couple different times where he stepped on somebody’s foot,” Suns coach Mike Budenholzer said, per David Brandt of The Associated Press. “We’ll hope for the best, but I have no update right now.”
- Warriors second-year guard Brandin Podziemski has been seeking guidance from mental coach Dr. Graig Chow, according to Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. Podziemski has been battling a shooting slump, resulting in reduced playing time. He has shown signs of coming out of his funk, including a 12-point, five-assist performance against Oklahoma City on Wednesday. “I think I’ve let the mental piece of it get to me a little bit,” Podziemski said. “Early on, when I was struggling, the first five, 10 games, I thought it was more physical. Like maybe I wasn’t putting enough into it. But everybody around here knows I’m one of, if not, the hardest workers and I put a lot into it. So I just thought outside the box. ‘Mentally, how can I get to where I want to get to?’ … And Dr. (Chow) has helped, obviously, a lot of people around here. And it doesn’t hurt to try and ask him. So he helped me give me a lot of different things that help me be my authentic self.”
- Lakers coach JJ Redick tweaked his lineup on Wednesday, reinserting rookie Dalton Knecht and moving Cam Reddish to the bench. Knecht scored a game-high 20 points as Los Angeles cruised past San Antonio to end a two-game slide. “I’m very proud of our group,” Redick said, per Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. “The response was great. And it’s funny because it’s literally what I talked about with them before the game. It’s just you got to let go of the past. You got to let go of the recent past and you got to get on to the next thing. And like they’ve done already on several occasions, they’ve responded.”
An unexpected development for the slumping Lakers has been losing the minutes when their two stars are on the court together, writes Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Going into Tuesday night, L.A. was being outscored by 5.5 points per 100 possessions in the 365 minutes that LeBron James and Anthony Davis were both in the game.
There are several glaring issues with the James-Davis lineups, Price adds. No matter who else is paired with them, the groups haven’t rebounded well or forced enough turnovers, and they’re letting opponents shoot high percentages from the field.
The inability to gain an advantage when their best players are sharing the court has contributed to the Lakers’ recent slowdown after a 10-4 start, but coach J.J. Redick doesn’t consider it to be a cause for alarm.
“Not concerned, not concerned at all,” Redick said. “It’s more diving deeper into the why and trying to self-correct that.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Tuesday’s return of Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal has the Suns looking like an elite team again, observes Doug Haller of The Athletic. Durant and Beal sparked a 27-point rout of the Lakers in an NBA Cup game and provided a reminder of how good the team looked during its 8-1 start to the season. “I just wanted to be out there with the guys,” said Durant, who missed seven games with a strained left calf. “Wanted to travel. When you’re injured, you’re still a part of the team, you’re still on the roster, but there’s a level of separation you have (with guys who are playing). I just wanted to be part of the group again.”
- Defense has become an issue for the Warriors in their last two games, notes Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle. They let a 17-point second half lead slip away in Saturday’s loss to San Antonio, then squandered an 18-point lead Monday against Brooklyn. The Warriors ranked 25th in team defense in those two games and allowed an atrocious 154.2 points per 100 possessions in the combined fourth quarters. Defensive issues were the focus of Tuesday’s practice. “Our communication wasn’t good and we didn’t rotate and trap the box how we normally would,” Kevon Looney said of Monday’s game. “(Assistant coach and defensive coordinator Jerry Stackhouse) talks about us being early, being aggressive and I think we were a half-second late on everything.”
- After being listed as questionable on Tuesday, Warriors guard Stephen Curry will sit out tonight’s game against Oklahoma City with bilateral knee pain, Gordon adds in a separate story. This will be Curry’s fourth missed game of the season, and Golden State has won the first three.
There’s good news and bad news for the Nets on their latest injury report, as Brian Lewis of The New York Post relays. Leading scorer Cam Thomas has been ruled out for Wednesday’s game in Phoenix due to left hamstring soreness. Thomas, who has also dealt with an illness and a sore back as of late, was removed in the third quarter on Monday vs. Golden State to “protect him from himself,” in the words of head coach Jordi Fernandez.
Big man Noah Clowney will join Thomas on the sidelines, having been ruled out for a second straight game due to a left ankle sprain. Brooklyn has yet to provide an update on the results of an MRI Clowney underwent on his injured ankle, Lewis notes.
A banged-up Nets team could get some reinforcements soon, however. According to Lewis, Nic Claxton (lower back soreness), Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle sprain), and Cameron Johnson (right ankle sprain) are all considered questionable to play on Wednesday. Claxton and Finney-Smith each missed Monday’s game, while Johnson exited in the first half.
Ben Simmons is also off the injury report after sitting out on Monday due to lower back injury management.
We have a few more injury-related notes from around the NBA:
- Originally listed as probable due to a left calf strain, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was a late scratch vs. Miami on Tuesday due to swelling in his left knee, per Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. As Owczarski notes, Antetokounmpo had surgery on that knee during the summer of 2023.
- Grizzlies guard Ja Morant played on Monday for the first time since November 6, but he has been ruled out for Wednesday’s game vs. Detroit due to a new injury, a left knee contusion, writes Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. Morant downplayed the ailment after the game on Monday: “A little knee to knee. Everybody know I get back up every time. … Quick little stinger, get out the way and just take care of it now.”
- Wizards guard Jordan Poole missed a second straight game on Tuesday due to left hip flexor soreness, per the team (Twitter link). Poole had initially been listed as questionable, so it sounds as if the issue is a day-to-day one rather than one that will keep him sidelined for an extended period.
- In his first game back following a two-week absence due to a right ankle sprain, Lakers center Jaxson Hayes re-aggravated that same ankle injury during the final minute of Tuesday’s loss to Phoenix. He had to be helped to the locker room, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (Twitter links), who says the team plans to provide an update on Hayes on Wednesday afternoon.
Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell recently confirmed rumors that he’d have interest in playing for the Lithuanian national team. Addressing those reports on Tuesday, however, the Lithuanian Basketball Federation announced that it doesn’t intend to initiate the naturalization process for Russell, citing both legal and basketball reasons.
Russell’s wife is of Lithuanian descent, but today’s statement from the Lithuanian Basketball Federation indicated that there are no grounds for Russell himself, as a foreigner, to be granted citizenship by exception, which can only be approved by the President of Lithuania.
As BasketNews.com notes, Lithuanian Basketball Federation president Mindaugas Balciunas added that national team head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis and general manager Linas Kleiza, “aim to achieve success using our own talent pool.” The naturalized slot on the club’s roster is currently held by Ignas Brazdeikis, who was born in Lithuania but moved to North America as a child, represented Canada in youth international competitions, and had his Lithuanian citizenship restored in 2021.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Looking ahead to the 2025 NBA draft, Jonathan Givony of ESPN identifies 10 international prospects worth knowing, starting with French point guard Nolan Traore, a projected top-10 pick, and Spanish wing Hugo Gonzalez, a lottery candidate. Israeli guard Ben Saraf, French forward Noa Essengue, and Croatian forward Michael Ruzic are among the other candidates to be first-round picks, according to Givony.
- Also at ESPN.com, Tim Bontemps shares his top takeaways from the first month of the 2024/25 NBA season, noting how important depth has been for many of this fall’s top teams, and ESPN’s NBA insiders make their early award picks, selecting Nikola Jokic (MVP), Jared McCain (Rookie of the Year), and Payton Pritchard (Sixth Man of the Year) as a few of their first-month winners.
- Former NBA big man Tacko Fall has officially finalized a two-year deal with the New Zealand Breakers that will run through the 2025/26 season, per the team. A previous report indicated that Fall would join the Breakers to replace Freddie Gillespie, who left Australia’s National Basketball League to play in the EuroLeague.
The Lakers are near the bottom of the league in defensive field goal percentage, with opponents shooting 48.5% against them. They know they need to improve their defense and rebounding to be a true contender. The Lakers face Phoenix in an NBA Cup matchup on Tuesday.
“Our personnel isn’t, you know, I think if we’re going to be honest with ourselves, isn’t the best defensively,” Austin Reaves told Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times. “Obviously we’ve got AD (Anthony Davis). That covers up a lot. But we have to be physical out on the perimeter and especially when boxing out. We got to be a better defensive rebounding team and transition as well.”
We have more Western Conference news:
- The Spurs have officially listed Devin Vassell (left knee bone bruise) as out for Tuesday at Utah, according to Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link). It’s not a cause for concern, as he’s expected to return Wednesday against the Lakers. Vassell hasn’t played since Nov. 15.
- Mavericks guard Klay Thompson missed his first game this season on Monday due to left foot plantar fascia, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon tweets. Thompson is averaging 13.2 points per game in 17 starts for Dallas this season. Without Thompson and Luka Doncic, the Mavs still defeated Atlanta, 129-119.
- Michael Malone passed Doug Moe as the winningest coach in Nuggets history with his 433rd regular-season victory on Saturday as his team defeated the Lakers. Malone reached that win total in 56 fewer games than Moe, according to the Denver Post’s Bennett Durando.
Kings guard Malik Monk has been unavailable since November 10 due to a right ankle sprain, but it sounds like he could be back in action on Monday. Sources tell NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link) that Monk will go through pre-game warm-ups with the intention of playing vs. Oklahoma City.
Monk has officially been listed as questionable to suit up, notes Sean Cunningham of FOX 40 in Sacramento (Twitter link).
It would provide the Kings’ offense with a much-needed jolt if Monk is able to return. The team, which had a 115.2 offensive rating (ninth in the NBA) and a 6-4 record through its first 10 games, has posted a 111.9 mark (18th) and gone 2-5 with Monk inactive.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Paul George (knee bone bruise) did some on-court work over the weekend and the swelling has gone down in Joel Embiid‘s left knee, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse told reporters on Sunday (Twitter link via Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports). While Nurse said both stars are making progress, it remains to be seen whether either will be available on Wednesday vs. Houston.
- Lakers center Jaxson Hayes, who has been on the shelf since November 10 due to a left ankle sprain, has been listed as probable to play on Tuesday vs. Phoenix and said he “definitely” expects to suit up, according to Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group (Twitter links).
- Second-year wing Gradey Dick had appeared in the Raptors‘ first 17 games this season, emerging as one of their go-to scoring options, but he’ll be sidelined on Monday vs. Detroit due to a left calf strain, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. It’s unclear how much time Dick might miss beyond Monday as a result of the injury.
- The Hornets assigned injured centers Mark Williams (left foot tendon strain) and Nick Richards (rib fracture) to the G League to practice with the Greensboro Swarm on Monday, according to the team (Twitter link). That’s a sign that both big men are getting close to returning. Williams has yet to make his season debut, while Richards has been out since November 1.
- Bulls guard Lonzo Ball has been upgraded to doubtful for Tuesday’s contest vs. the Wizards, notes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link). That’s the first time Ball has been listed as anything besides “out” since spraining his right wrist on October 28, so it appears his return isn’t far off.