Tag: NBA Basketball

Davis says shoulder is ‘fine’ and hopes to play Tuesday at Phoenix

Davis added that he won’t know for sure that he will play against the Phoenix Suns until going through shoot around on Tuesday.

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Anthony Davis told reporters after the Los Angeles Lakers first loss in over two weeks that he does feel discomfort in his shoulder fairly often when he’s playing after aggravating it on a block attempt in Sunday’s game against the Toronto Raptors. But come Monday afternoon, Davis was already past his discomfort while also admitting he’s not 100 percent sure he will play Tuesday night against a strong Phoenix Suns group.

Davis told reporters on Monday that he hopes to play Tuesday at Phoenix but won’t make the final call on whether he will play until he goes through shoot around in Phoenix, according to Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times.

Davis also suggested that his shoulder is much better than it was when he initially injured it on a missed dunk during the team’s victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Oct. 27, according to Mike Trudell for Lakers.com.

We can forgive Davis for holding saying two disconnecting thoughts at once because it seems like his shoulder is going to be a day-to-day thing as the season goes on, so his outlook on his shoulder will likely vary from one day to the next.

Until Sunday night’s game, Davis had gone quite a while without enduring a shoulder discomfort but it’s been something he’s had to deal with for a long time. He had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder after the 2015-16, but it’s his right one that is currently ailing. Either way, it looks like it will be something he’s going to deal with all season. Sometimes like Monday, it will be simple for Davis. But as Sunday showed, there will be complicated moments as well.

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Frank Vogel says injured Rajon Rondo will return ‘hopefully soon’

Rajon Rondo’s return from a calf injury has been a slow and deliberate one, with no clear end in sight.

All things considered, the Los Angeles Lakers are having a great start to the season. When they hit the three-week mark on Tuesday, they will still be 7-2 heading into a game against the Phoenix Suns. But if you were hoping for them to get Rajon Rondo back in the lineup soon, his two-steps-forward-one-step-back recovery from a sore calf, has complicated it.

After being close to playing on Sunday, Rondo’s return was immediately called off after a 5-on-5 workout, according to Yahoo’s Chris Haynes. And the outlook for Rondo doesn’t look any clearer after Sunday’s loss to the Toronto Raptors. Coach Frank Vogel told reporters that it would be “hopefully soon” when Rondo returns but acknowledged that the soft tissue injury has been tricky to deal with.

According to Harrison Faigen for Silver Screen and Roll, Vogel said before the game on Sunday:

It’s tough to say. With a soft tissue injury, you never know how quickly those things are going to heal. You want to have the mindset where you can ramp up activity and get through it with no pain and no soreness. And if that doesn’t happen then it can be delayed. So it’s not that unusual in my mind.

Vogel doesn’t seem too concerned by the injury given its nature as a difficult injury to recover from, let alone for a veteran like Rondo. The Lakers are taking it slow, but their patience doesn’t make Rondo’s slow recovery any less concerning.

LeBron on seeing his sons rundown from AAU tournaments: ‘This isn’t right’

LeBron James said that he sees the toll of AAU basketball first-hand, with his two sons, and says the status quo bothers him.

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When it comes to his own load management, LeBron James has a pretty simple approach. But when it comes to the well-being of his children and the thousands of kids that play youth basketball on the summer tournament circuit, James has many more thoughts as a parent of two hoops hopefuls.

In an interview with Yahoo’s Chris Haynes, James tackled the issue of youth players coming into the league rundown and with injuries. He discussed seeing his sons being forced to play three games in one session at an AAU tournament this year and how jarring it was for him to see his kids rundown, explaining:

Because a lot of these tournaments don’t have the best interest of these kids, man. I see it. It’s like one time, they had to play a quarterfinal game, a semifinal game and a championship game starting at 9 a.m., and the championship game was at 12:30 p.m. Three games. I was like, ‘Oh, hell no.’ And my kids were dead tired. My kids were dead tired. This isn’t right. This is an issue.

Over the summer, the issue of youth basketball wearing down the game’s most promising young players was the topic of a phenomenal expose by ESPN’s Baxter Holmes. And as if the topic didn’t need anymore support, No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson needed knee surgery days before the season began and No. 2 pick Ja Morant had a knee procedure over the summer.

The issue of players entering the league with chronic injuries is not one that will go away soon. And while LeBron can only influence the workloads of his two sons, it’s clear he doesn’t like the non-stop cycle that often chews up and spits out players before they get a chance to be fully-formed.

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LeBron James becomes first Lakers to get 4 triple-double in 1st 10 games

LeBron James made more franchise history for the Los Angeles Lakers even in their first loss in eight games.

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Sunday night was the first time in two weeks that the Los Angeles Lakers felt what it was like to lose as the Toronto Raptors used a huge second half to end the Lakers seven-game win-streak. But even in the loss, LeBron James managed to make a small bit of Lakers history with his play.

With 13 points, 15 assists and 13 rebounds, James recorded his fourth triple-double of the season. James became the first player in Lakers franchise history to record four triple-doubles in the first 10 games of the season. Interestingly enough, Dallas Mavericks forward Luka Doncic has also accomplished the same feat this season. The Lakers still have one game left before they get to 10 as they sit at 7-2 after nine games.

Although James gets into the history books for the Lakers, he had a particularly bad night in his attempts to score the ball against a rangy and athletic Raptors front court. James was 5-15 from the field on Sunday and an uncharacteristic 3-6 from the free-throw line.

LeBron and the Lakers will head to Phoenix on Tuesday for a quick trip before returning to L.A. on Wednesday to face the Golden State Warriors.