Lakers Injury Report: LA Starter Expected To Miss OKC Game With Illness

Not what you want.

The excused absences appear to be piling up for your Los Angeles Lakers tonight, ahead of their matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder. 

On the heels of the news that small forward Cam Reddish will miss several games with a sore left knee that apparently is swelling (this latter tidbit is never great to hear), Dave McMenamin of ESPN has revealed that another starter for LA's most recent game, a 132-125 defeat against the Utah Jazz, is also set to sit out the action against one of the West's best, in what is looking increasingly like a doomed venture.

Point guard D'Angelo Russell, who had started his first game against Utah since Darvin Ham initially benched him ten contests prior (Russell missed three of those games with injuries), will be supposedly on the shelf with what is being described as a non-COVID illness.

In his 36 healthy bouts with the Lakers this year (29 starts), Russell is averaging 15.4 points on .471/.394/.760 shooting splits, 6.1 assists, 2.8 rebounds, 0.8 steals and 0.5 blocks a night.

Granted, D-Lo is not typically a starter anymore due to his defensive issues, but to his credit he enjoyed probably his best game of the year upon returning to that role on Saturday against the Jazz. He scored 39 points in 41 minutes.

UPDATE:

Apparently, McMenamin's prediction was a bit preemptive. Russell has been cleared to play, after all, per Khobi Price of The Orange County Register.