Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton is listening to his trainers and sitting out Lonzo Ball for Friday night's preseason finale, as the highly touted rookie recovers from an ankle injury that he suffered on Oct. 2 against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center.
With Ball sitting out the preseason finale against the LA Clippers, the rookie will effectively go two and a half weeks between his final preseason appearance and the no. 2 pick's regular season debut. At the moment, Ball still expects to start for the Lakers on opening night on Oct. 19, 2017 at Staples Center against the same LA Clippers team the Lakers meet on Friday night.
Walton shared that Ball said he felt good but did have a bit of soreness in the ankle after taking part in practice the night before.
Walton said, "He did more today than he's been doing. It was a normal shootaround for him as far as if he were healthy and playing in tonight's game."
According to Walton, conditioning, timing with teammates and defensive rotations repetitions will be the biggest challenges facing the rookie after missing time in preseason and in practice, but Walton said he was optimistic that Ball would be able to make strides over the upcoming five days of practice.
"We're going to get after it these last five, six days, and (Ball will) be out there going through everything as long as the ankle holds up, and that should be enough time for him to at least get caught up a little bit."
Ball, though, looked to be in great spirits during shootaround and was dancing and enjoying going through shooting drills with his teammates. Along with Ball, Andrew Bogut is also still not ready to play, but the Australian big man also took part in Lakers' shootaround.
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In addition, Walton made specific mention of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's upcoming two-game suspension for driving under the influence while he was still a member of the Detroit Pistons. With Caldwell-Pope missing the first two games of the regular season, the coach will be looking to figure out potential combinations that could be utilized in those first two games. However, Walton stated that Caldwell-Pope would start Friday's preseason finale at Staples Center.
Tip-off on Friday is 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
Notes: Larry Nance Jr. will start at power forward. Nance continues to sit atop of the leader board at practice, and Walton seemingly has a tough decision to make between Nance and Julius Randle for the starting power forward spot. According to the coach, Kyle Kuzma has a 10 percent chance of taking that spot.
