Los Angeles Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope suffered an ankle injury during Friday’s win over the San Antonio Spurs. KCP turned his ankle in the third quarter as he went on a scoring outburst and was unable to finish out the game despite X-Rays returning as negative and the injury being diagnosed as a mild ankle sprain.
After the game, Caldwell-Pope spoke to the media and expressed his frustration that he could not finish out the match after his hot scoring streak. KCP, who finished the game with 11 points, confirmed that he did not need a walking boot after his injury and maintained that he was hoping to play on Sunday afternoon when the Lakers visit the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Ankle is fine. X-rays was negative. Just a little sprain, and hopefully I can go in a couple days." @CaldwellPope with an update on his ankle. pic.twitter.com/baBejIw7Y5
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) January 2, 2021
Despite Caldwell-Pope’s desire to play, it will ultimately be up to the Lakers’ medical and coaching staffs whether he will play or not. The Grizzlies, without Ja Morant, should be a somewhat easy win (as much as possible in the NBA) for the Lakers. The silver lining to KCP missing a handful of games could be more playing time for Talen Horton-Tucker who contributed five points and two blocks in the 14 minutes he played against the Spurs on Friday.
Alex Caruso’s availability is still up in the air as the guard has missed the last three games due to the NBA’s “health and safety protocol.”
Now in his fourth season with the Lakers, Caldwell-Pope has only missed 10 games since joining the purple and gold, appearing in 231 games in that time.
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