Lakers: Talen Horton-Tucker and Dwight Howard Status Updates

The Lakers are getting some players back

After the Lakers lost a tough game on Sunday night to the Bulls, fans were left encouraged but disappointed. For the Lakers to have so many players missing due to COVID-19 protocols, they put up a good fight against Chicago. 

Based on multiple estimations, a good 17-18% of rostered NBA players are unavailable due to COVID-19 protocols. This is a big issue for the NBA. The NBA understands this and has postponed many of the games over the past few nights.

The Lakers are no exception to this, as many players have been missing over the past 10 days. The good news for the Lakers is at least two players will be available for Tuesday night's game versus the Phoenix Suns.

Lakers say that Talen Horton-Tucker and Dwight Howard have been cleared out of the NBA’s Health & Safety Protocols. Both are available to play tonight vs Suns.

— Brad Turner (@BA_Turner) December 21, 2021

Let's be honest. Even if both Dwight Howard and Talen Horton-Tucker were low-impact players, the Lakers would be happy to have them back. Tucker and Howard are not low-impact players, however. Tucker has started to come into his own as a wing defender and a scorer. He plays good defense that doesn't always make it into the box score. Howard has been the Lakers' only effective big man not named Anthony Davis. With Davis expected to be out of action for at least a month, the Lakers sorely need Howard back. In the Lakers loss to the Timberwolves, LA was out-rebounded 61-36. That is a horrific parity in rebounding numbers. The loss against the Bulls had a less lopsided rebounding parity, but the Bulls are also a smaller team who has been drastically shorthanded.  

Howard may be a role player at this stage in his career, but it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that he's going to play starters minutes against bigger teams.