Lakers News: Timberwolves-Lakers Preseason Injury Report

The latest availability news for Los Angeles and Minnesota.

Tonight, your Los Angeles Lakers are looking to notch a second straight preseason victory, this time in a home rematch against the Minnesota Timberwolves that tips off at 7 p.m. at Crypto.com Arena. But who will be available for L.A.?

Wing Troy Brown Jr. remains out with that pesky back injury, but Dennis Schröder, newly arrived into town from Germany, is available for his debut in a new reserve role with Los Angeles! 

L.A. head coach Darvin Ham recently hinted he would trot our something more closely resembling his anticipated rotation for these final two preseason games, so we have that to look forward to, at least in the first half of the contest.

As of now, all the Timberwolves are listed as available. Minnesota head coach Chris Finch has opted to occasionally rest his four top players (Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell), so it's possible that one or more of these vets will be in street clothes tonight.

It seems quite possible that Ham opts to start Anthony Davis at center. He has mixed and matched a variety of L.A. role players across the team's first four preseason games, while occasionally resting pricey Lakers vets Davis, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley. 

Ham will most likely look to at least start James, Davis and Westbrook together, even though it's pretty clear that Westbrook's minutes should be staggered a bit with James's so that he can operate as a lead ball-handler. The UCLA product also cramps the team's facing when sharing the floor with James and Davis. Mike Trudell of Lakers.com reports small-ish starting five consisting of 6'3" Westbrook running the point, 6'1" Beverley (the team's third-best player, behind James and Davis) playing at shooting guard, 6'4" swingman Lonnie Walker IV starting at small forward, and 6'9" James and 6'10" Davis each moving up a position to power forward and center.

Trudell cautions in a separate article that either Gobert and/or Towns could miss tonight's action, though the Timberwolves have yet to indicate their availability at this juncture.