Los Angeles Lakers have bad injury news. They announced Thursday that Moe Bamba has been diagnosed with a high left ankle sprain and will be re-examined four weeks later.
That leaves Bamba, who lost in the first few minutes of Sunday’s game against the Golden State Warriors, out of action for the rest of the regular season. He was the Lakers’ major upgrade at the trade deadline, and he’s not the only one they’ll be left without: LeBron James remains in the game after suffering a tendon injury in his leg in late February. In a few weeks, he should be re-examined, but there is no guarantee that he will be ready for work at that time.
With 16 games to go, this is not the best time for the Lakers to lose players to injury. They are currently 32-34 and tied with the New Orleans Pelicans for last place to play in the Western Conference, but the Oklahoma City Thunder, Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers trail them with 31-35 records. In addition, the Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers, and Golden State Warriors are only 1-2 games ahead of the Lakers. Even the fourth-place Phoenix Suns can be caught now.
It all comes down to the fact that the Lakers are in trouble. They are losing players at a vital point in the season when they need to build momentum rather than run at a furious pace just to stay in the group. Perhaps Bamba and LeBron will be able to return to the play-in tournament, but there is no guarantee that they will get to this place.
Source: sports.yahoo.com
