The Lakers faced a major setback in the first quarter of tonight’s fixture against the Nuggets as they were forced to pull Deandre Ayton from the game due to a knee issue.
After just five minutes of action for Ayton, where he gathered only two rebounds, the Lakers called it a night for their starting center and replaced him with Jaxson Hayes on the floor.
Ayton headed to the locker room and did not return for the rest of the night. Later, the team confirmed that Ayton was sidelined due to a knee issue but they did not specify which knee.
Subsequently, even LeBron James missed the final few seconds of the nail-biting game. The Lakers ended up losing 113-120 tonight after a dominating 28-point triple-double from Nikola Jokic. If Ayton was available on the floor, the team in purple and gold would have a lot more size to counter Jokic’s dominance.
Later, JJ Redick spoke to the media and confirmed that it was left knee soreness that kept Ayton sidelined after just five minutes in the first quarter. Meanwhile, discomfort in LeBron James’ elbow didn’t allow him to finish the game.
Redick confirmed James was icing his elbow and should not face any long-term concerns. James finished the game with 16 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and three steals while shooting 7-11 from the field (63.6 FG%).
On a night where James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (15,837) for the most field goals in NBA regular season history, he couldn’t stay on the court to deliver a win. But he only went out after the game was essentially decided. Thus, not the biggest concern from tonight.
Meanwhile, the Lakers will also hope it is not a serious injury for their big man Ayton, who has been struggling to find consistency recently. So far this season, he has averaged 12.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks in 53 games played. He shot 66.8% from the field over this period.
Of the eight games he missed, five were due to issues in his knees, and four of those were right knee problems. He did not suffer any injuries or land awkwardly during the game tonight, which is a positive sign that this is only soreness and not an aggravation of his previous issues.
Ayton is in the first season of a two-year, $16.2 million deal with the Lakers. As a former No. 1 overall pick, he has severely underdelivered so far in his time with the Lakers.
He recently made the headlines for what seemed to be a jab at the Lakers’ coaching staff for using him like Clint Capela. But he faced a lot of backlash from former players and the media for blaming his own performance on the Lakers’ coaching staff.
He has proven to be a defensive liability on multiple occasions, and his offensive contributions have not been much beyond those of a role player. Even though the Lakers reportedly used unconventional methods to boost his ego, those efforts have not yielded much fruit.
Therefore, this knee issue presents another hurdle for Ayton to jump over in his pursuit to find his place on the Lakers, who arguably have the most eyes on them in terms of expectations.
With a superstar like Luka Doncic in his prime and LeBron James looking for his fifth NBA title, Ayton faces tremendous pressure on the Lakers every day.
It will be interesting to see if Ayton bounces back and steps up to the challenge or whether he folds his cards and begins preparing for next season. The Lakers face the Pacers tomorrow night, and the gravity of these injuries will be a lot clearer then.
