Lakers forward Rui Hachimura missed a fifth consecutive game on Saturday due to patellar tendinopathy affecting his left knee, but he’s doing “well,” according to head coach J.J. Redick, who told reporters that Hachimura is going through the return-to-play process and doing more on-court work (Twitter link via Khobi Price of the Southern California News Group).
The plan, Redick added on Saturday, is for Hachimura to be reevaluated in about a week.
Meanwhile, the Lakers were also without center Jaxson Hayes on Saturday, which is a more significant loss than it would have been earlier in the season. Hayes had been Los Angeles’ starting center for each of the team’s past 16 games following Anthony Davis‘ injury and the subsequent trade sending him to Dallas.
Hayes, who was listed as out due to a right knee contusion, was replaced by forward Jarred Vanderbilt in the starting five. Redick said the club has been monitoring swelling in Hayes’ knee, but added that he doesn’t believe the injury is “anything serious” and conveyed optimism that the big man’s absence won’t last too long, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link).
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Luka Doncic was shocked when he first learned of the trade sending him from Dallas to Los Angeles, but after over a month with the Lakers, he’s feeling more comfortable in his new NBA home, having recently moved into a leased house in L.A., according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter video link). “He’s felt more and more appreciative and comfortable with how the Lakers have surrounded him with support, with inclusion in the process of everything,” Charania said on NBA Countdown. “This has been a true partnership that they’re trying to develop, and that means a lot for his long-term future for the Lakers.” Doncic will be extension-eligible this offseason and the Lakers are expected to offer him a maximum-salary deal at that time.
- The Lakers’ trade for Doncic earned the organization the Alpha Award for Transaction of the Year at this year’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, tweets McMenamin. As McMenamin points out, the Celtics won that award a year ago for their acquisition of Kristaps Porzingis.
- In an interesting article for The Athletic, Jovan Buha takes a look at the connections between Redick and Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, who offered Redick a spot as an assistant on his staff on Boston before his first year at the helm in September 2022, then again in March 2023. Redick wasn’t ready at that time to get into coaching, but he made it clear there’s significant mutual respect between him and Mazzulla. “When I was going through this process, he, along with a few other coaches in the NBA, were really helpful,” Redick said. “Not just in preparing for an interview, but just really helping me understand what this was and what it required.”
- In case you missed it late on Saturday night, LeBron James is being evaluated after sustaining a groin injury in Saturday’s loss to Boston.