Los Angeles Lakers: Fallout from Lonzo Ball’s ankle injury

The Los Angeles Lakers added another important player to the injury report, as Lonzo Ball will miss the next 4-6 weeks with a left ankle sprain.

Before the Jan. 19 game against the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton announced that LeBron James and Rajon Rondo would practice in full on Sunday, but miss the Martin Luther King Jr. Day clash against the Golden State Warriors. This news came on the heels of an impressive road win against the Oklahoma City Thunder, which enhanced the good vibes around a Lakers team gearing up for the return of LBJ and Rondo.

With 8:39 remaining in the third quarter against Houston, the Lake Show were up 69-54 and well on their way to another road win over a conference rival until Lonzo Ball rolled his left ankle and exited the game. The Lakers eventually lost the game in overtime, 138-134, after an Eric Gordon 3-pointer with 2.0 seconds left sent the game to an extra five minutes.

The loss was bad enough, but the injury to Lonzo is the real takeaway from the game. The night flipped when Ball, the Lakers’ lone true point guard healthy in the rotation, exited. It showed how important he is to this team.

Now they will have to cope with his absence for 4-6 weeks, as it was revealed he suffered a Grade 3 left ankle sprain. This is the second time he’s injured this ankle this season, although the Nov. 27 sprain against the Denver Nuggets didn’t force him to miss any time.

Lonzo Ball has been playing really well since Rondo and LeBron were injured on Christmas Day, averaging 12.5 points per game while shooting 37.3 percent on 5.8 3-point attempts per game. Outside of a solid shooting stretch, he had averaged 7.2 assists, 5.9 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 33.8 minutes per game over the last 13 games.

This injury is obviously massive. The players and coaches said after the game how much they will miss Lonzo’s pace control, IQ and defensive abilities, and all of that’s true. But combine all of it with the Lakers already being extremely thin at the point guard position and this injury could have lingering effects on the season moving forward.

Rushing back LBJ and Rondo has been ruled out by Luke Walton, so the Lakers are recalling Alex Caruso from the South Bay Lakers to add some depth. Until LeBron and Rondo return, Brandon Ingram will have the most on his plate of any Lakers and will be asked to create for everybody, including himself.

Ingram has done some good stuff this year, but remains inconsistent and predictable with his game. Surrounding him with shooters with the ball in his hands is his best scenario for success, and expect to see a lot of this for the immediate future.

Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk should be in line for an increase in minutes and helps space the floor for BI. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been inconsistent, but is playing a great deal and starting as of late, and is one of the better shooters on the Lakers. Josh Hart needs to find his early season playing level to carry the load, and should see time at the point guard spot himself.

In terms of maximizing Ingram, thrusting him into a point forward role with KCP, Svi and Hart is the way to proceed. The problem is we have no evidence to date that Ingram can carry that large of a load for an offense for an extended period of time.

Kyle Kuzma will see an uptick in shots and has been the Lakers’ best player during this LeBron-less stretch, but we haven’t seen him playmake enough to warrant him initiating an offense. This is the main issue with the Lakers at the moment. It’s not bringing the ball up the floor, but they will have very limited personnel that can operate a pick-and-roll and create for themselves.

Lonzo isn’t the best creator in the half-court, but has been improving with his finishing around the rim and manipulating space to get his shot or find a teammate. The Lakers are now down to Ingram and Alex Caruso. Caruso is a high effort point guard that has a pass-first mentality, but can he run the game for 15-20 minutes?

The Los Angeles Lakers are currently on the outside of the playoff picture in the Western Conference, but the margins are so thin and change on a nightly basis that a three-game winning streak could see them in a 5- or 6-seed, something detailed in a NBA recap last week in terms of injuries determining the Western Conference.

The injury to Lonzo Ball piles onto their current problems, but at least LeBron and Rondo are nearing a return and the All-Star break is less than a month away, which knocks a week of games from Lonzo’s timetable to return.

The first game is Jan. 21 against the Golden State Warriors, who themselves are finally at full strength with DeMarcus Cousins back in the lineup, so it’s not the best barometer of how a Lonzo-less Lakers team may look. But the games afterward against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns at home are solid opportunities to win.

For Ball personally, this injury comes at an awful time. He was playing the best basketball of the season and now has to deal with an ankle injury that could linger throughout the season, even upon returning.

Like LeBron and Rondo, Zo can’t be rushed back. If there is anything to learn from this 13-game and counting stretch without those two, it’s that the Lakers are on par with everybody in the Western Conference except Golden State.

What’s unfortunate is we haven’t seen this Lakers team at full strength for all but three games. When everybody returns in late-February or March, they’ll have around a month to regain chemistry and push for the playoffs.

Luckily, having the best player in the world in LeBron James is always a good side of the equation to be on. Lonzo will be missed, but help is on its way very shortly.