Lakers Practice: Young, Sacre Sit Out

On Monday, the Los Angeles Lakers met for practice but the absences of Nick Young and Robert Sacre due to injuries limited the Lakers on healthy bodies

The Los Angeles Lakers left the floor smiling, hopping and jumping with joy on Sunday evening after beating their rival Boston Celtics in overtime.

About 12 hours later, the Lakers met for practice in El Segundo, but the team could not muster up 12 healthy bodies. Nick Young's left knee grew to a big enough size that the team announced that the 29-year-old would see a doctor later in the afternoon.

Starting center Robert Sacre attempted to practice, but his sore left foot forced him off the court. Sacre will also visit the medicine man on Monday afternoon, and both players' statuses for Wednesday's game in Utah is to be determined.

The Lakers had 12 healthy bodies for the past couple games, which was an anomaly this season. With the healthy bodies, Lakers coach Byron Scott actually sat two players out of Friday's loss to the Brooklyn Nets. On Sunday, Scott found time for all 12 guys, but rookie Tarik Black only played four minutes.

If Sacre cannot go, Black may jump from potentially sitting out Wednesday's game to starting. If Young is unable to go, the Lakers would likely rely on Wesley Johnson to play heavy minutes. Johnson had his best game of the season against the Celtics, finishing with a season high 22 points.

However, Young would be a huge loss, as the Lakers' backup small forward finished with 19 points on Sunday, which was his highest total in over a month.

With the Lakers short on wing positions, Ryan Kelly will likely stay in the starting lineup and may even get more time on the court if Young misses Wednesday's game.

"I think most people understand that the four is more of my natural position," Kelly said after Monday's practice. "But, like I said from the beginning, the opportunity to play at the three position and also in the future to play some minutes there--the more you can do on the floor, the more valuable you are."

"I think it's more of a roster makeup," Kelly explained why he is playing out of position. "I don't think it's me having a lack of something for [the power forward] position. I think we just have a lot of bigs and we don't have a lot of wings, so we need somebody. And I'm somebody who has a little bit of ball friendliness and can play facing the basket."

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The Lakers intend to practice on Tuesday before flying up to Utah.

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