Lakers Injury Report: Darvin Ham Updates Status Of Ailing LA Role Player

But is he going to help LA at all?

Your Los Angeles Lakers, currently trailing the Denver Nuggets 0-3 in the Western Conference Finals after a soul-sucking 119-108 defeat on Saturday, will be facing the prospect of a do-or-die Game 4 matchup on Monday.

It looks like LA could be getting a bit healthier by then, although it doesn't matter one single iota.

Per Chris Haynes of TNT, Los Angeles head coach Darvin Ham has indicated that he anticipates backup center Mo Bamba to be available for the first time this series. The seven-footer has been on the shelf with a sore left ankle for the Lakers' past nine playoff games.

This is not entirely unexpected news, as it had been revealed ahead of Game 3 that Bamba was expected to return in time for the fourth or fifth games of the series.

Bamba wasn't in Ham's regular season rotation even prior to incurring the high left ankle sprain that forced him to sit out the final month of LA's regular season, having been replaced by power forward/center Wenyen Gabriel. Gabriel, too, is barely in the club's rotation at present. Bamba played some mop-up minutes during the Lakers' first round series win against the Memphis Grizzlies, but that's all the time he has seen in this postseason.

In the three contests he did play against Memphis, Bamba averaged zero points and one rebound across 3.4 minutes, all in meaningless garbage time minutes with the games already decided.

The Lakers have a $10.3 million player option the former 2018 lottery pick out of the University of Texas at Austin this summer, and based on his health issues and performances when available, I'd say it's highly unlikely he's back in an LA uniform on a fully guaranteed contract next season.

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