Russell is doubtful against Mavericks
Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell is not likely to play Sunday when the team plays against the Mavericks in Dallas.
“I doubt he’ll play Sunday,” Lakers coach Dar vin Ham said Friday of Russell, who sprained his right ankle during the first quarter of Thursday night’s victory over the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena.
Russell was injured when he stepped on the foot of Golden State’s Donte DiVincenzo while inbounding the ball, rolling his ankle.
“He’s still going through some different treatment procedures,” Ham said after practice. “There really hasn’t been an official word. It’s not sprained. Well, it is sprained, I should say. There’s no structural damage or anything like that. It’s going to be a day-by-day thing, pretty much.”
Ham said Russell didn’t get an MRI exam Friday, just “in-house treatment.”
“I mean, he’s good. I’ve seen him. He’s in good spirits,” forward Jarred Vanderbilt said. “I’ll leave that to the medical staff. I don’t know how long he’ll be out, or if he is out. But I mean, I seen him this morning. He’s in good spirits.”
In four games with the Lakers, Russell is averaging 13.5 points, 5.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds.
He is shooting 44.2% from the field, 35.3% from threepoint range.
“He’s excited about what’s happening here and what he’s going to be a part of,” Ham said. “Us trying to get the ship in the right position for us to go forward the rest of the season. … The energy has been great. He’s been great.
“Even though he’s not able to be physically active with the rest of the group, he’s out here listening as we’re talking about Dallas. Doing some things on the court, he’s right there on the sidelines soaking it all in and continuing to learn our system, our terminology. So, it’s good man. It’s a good vibe.”
Taking a shot
Before the Lakers opened the stretch run with a win over Golden State, Anthony Davis reprimanded Malik Beasley for throwing the ball back to Davis during a play the team was running in the pregame shootaround.
Davis and the Lakers want Beasley to look for his shots, take his shots when open and be the outside threat the team expected after he was acquired from the Utah Jazz.
Davis said they were running a play for Beasley, a career 38% three-point shooter, and that the guard caught the ball and passed it back inside instead of shooting.
“I threw the ball back out of bounds and ran it again and told him, ‘You shoot the ball. Like, I’ll get touches. You shoot. We want you to shoot,’ ” Davis said. “I think he’s a key piece to our team, able to space the floor.”
Indeed, Beasley made seven of 11 shots from threepoint range while leading the Lakers in scoring with 25 points Thursday.
“That feels good when you’re a shooter,” Beasley said of Davis’ reaction to passing up a shot. “It gets my confidence high, AD and LeBron [James] keep saying, ‘We gonna get ours, so do what you do and keep spacing the f loor and knock down shots.’ ”