Lakers Injury Report: Memphis Has More Hurt Players Than Healthy Ones Vs LA

Alex Kirschenbaum | Apr 12, 2024

Mar 27, 2024; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) drives to the basket against the Memphis Grizzlies. / Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

The Lakers are hoping to win their penultimate game of the 2023-24 regular season. Tonight, as the 45-35 Los Angeles Lakers look to rise in the Western Conference play-in standings (they're currently the No. 10 seed), they should have one of the great "gimme" late-season games of all time when they square off against their 2023 first round playoff foes, the 27-53 Memphis Grizzlies. The Lakers are looking to win their penultimate game of the 2023-24 regular season.

That's due in part to the fact that the Grizzlies have more players hurt than healthy.

According to a league injury report this morning. 13 Memphis players from the team's 15-man standard roster are already on the shelf. From that group, only a dynamic duo of combo forwards, 6'7" Jake LaRavia and 6'9" rookie GG Jackson (one of the league's youngest players, who'll be playing against its oldest tonight in LA All-Star forward LeBron James if he can suit up), is available.

The team's core four is probably the group it'll miss most: All-Star point guard Ja Morant (who played just nine games before his right labral shoulder tear felled him for the year), shooting guard Desmond Bane (lumbar disc bulge), small forward Marcus Smart (right ring finger central slip tear), and power forward/center Jaren Jackson Jr. (right quadriceps tendinitis). Power forward Brandon Clarke (right hand contusion), who missed almost all of the season as he recovered from a torn left Achilles, seemed in line to assume starting power forward duties after the team offloaded its nominal starting center, Steven Adams (who had already been ruled out for the year), and shifted Jackson up a position.

Per Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal, eight Memphis players will still be able to suit up tonight (the team is getting some help from G League players and hardship exception additions), meaning the club will not have to forfeit the contest. Why it doesn't just want to go ahead and do that is anybody's guess.