The Los Angeles Lakers are 11-9 about a quarter of the way through their season. While plenty of fans feel that is a disappointment, they have had to deal with a revolving door of injuries to key players.
Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura and Cam Reddish have missed multiple games, which has left the Lakers short on depth. In Thursday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, they had only six regular rotation players available, forcing second-year wing Max Christie to start his fifth straight game and rookie guard Jalen Hood-Schifino to play meaningful minutes.
As a result, LeBron James said the team doesn’t know yet what it is (at 4:37).
“I definitely gotta see Bronny’s first college game whenever he’s cleared and ready to go.” LeBron James let #Lakers fans know he'll be out of the office for Bronny's debut. pic.twitter.com/kCBf9Ut0TJ
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) December 1, 2023
“I have no idea what we are. How? We don’t have our group yet. I know what some of us individually are, but as far as a team, we don’t have our group yet. I don’t know. We haven’t had enough minutes with our group to be like OK, this is the starting group, we got the guys coming in, we got a good rhythm. I mean, we’re over .500. We’re 11-9 with literally not ever having our same group. That’s pretty impressive.”
James also said the second-quarter blitz the Thunder went on against L.A. was indicative of the depth and length the team lacked due to injury.
Fortunately, Hachimura and Vanderbilt are expected to be available for the team’s Saturday night contest against the Houston Rockets, while Reddish and backup center Jaxson Hayes are listed as probable.