Lakers News: L.A. Finally Makes Safe Choice On Second Night Of Back-To-Back, Plus Full Injury Report

An old guy is getting a rest day!

After averaging an insane 36.1 minutes a night through all of L.A.'s first nine games, Los Angeles Lakers All-Star LeBron James finally listened to his body and will take a game off tonight, as the Lakers look to lose to the Utah Jazz again for the second time in four days. 

The Jazz are coming off a 110-103 victory over the indefinitely Kawhi Leonard-free L.A. Clippers last night, which elevated the young, deep club to an 8-3 record. Your Lakers also played yesterday, in a daytime home bout with the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers. They lost 114-100.

Marc Stein shares the Lakers' full injury report, indicating that the official reason for James's absence is the sore left foot that has been listed as hampering him all season. This is absolutely the right call. The foot has clearly been affecting James's burst and lift, at least in the past handful of contests.

L.A.'s other injured (semi-) superstar, center Anthony Davis, is listed as probable to play tonight with the injury that has been hampering him all year, a tight low back.

Starting Lakers point guard Patrick Beverley will miss his second straight game with a non-COVID-19 ailment. Kendrick Nunn started in his stead, going scoreless on 0-of-4 shooting in 18:22 of run. One wonders if Darvin Ham will opt to start a better player tonight, given how poorly Nunn performed. With James out of the lineup tonight, maybe it'd behoove the Lakers to elevate Russell Westbrook to the starting role? James and Westbrook can't play particularly effectively together, but have shown that they have plenty of juice when playing apart. Westbrook has a nice chemistry with Anthony Davis, when he remembers to pass to the big man, anyway.

Reserves Thomas Bryant and Dennis Schröder are still sidelined with surgically-enhanced thumbs. Two-way forward Cole Swider, still dealing with a stress reaction in his foot, is currently listed as being with the Lakers' G League affiliate club, the South Bay Lakers.