After going down with a sprained left ankle in the Lakers second preseason game, Lonzo Ball will miss the team’s game Sunday night against the Sacramento Kings. Leading into Sunday the team listed Ball as questionable, but after a hobbled display during practice on Saturday Luke Walton made the decision to sit the rookie.
While taking a cautious approach is in all likelihood the right call there is growing concern that Ball could miss the team’s remaining two preseasons games as well.
Walton spoke to reporters on Sunday about the chances of Ball missing the rest of the preseason, according to Bill Oram of the Orange County Register. Walton said, “I hope not, but yeah that’s a possibility. It is different with every player. He is new to the team so we got to see how long these types of injuries take him to come back from. We’d like to have him back but again we are not going to rush him back just to try to get him out there.”
This news is fairly discouraging since the team had a shortened training camp this year. This puts more pressure on Ball and the team to get acclimated during these exhibition games.
There was reason for optimism as Walton did not believe this is something that will carry through to the regular season opener on October 19th. Walton added, “I assume he will be back by then.”
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