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Lakers spokesman John Black offered an injury update following Friday’s practice:
- An MRI from a few days ago revealed that Sasha Vujacic does have a sprained ankle, as was thought to be the case.
- Jordan Farmar missed practice with a sore right foot.
- D.J. Mbenga practiced for the first half of the session but sat out the second with a sore right heel.
With training camp around the corner the Lakers took another step toward filling out their roster as they re-signed Center DJ Mbenga.
Mbenga bounced around last season, first going to training camp with the Dallas Mavericks and then playing the first part of the season with the Golden State Warriors.
After signing multiple ten-day contracts with the Lakers, Mbenga was brought aboard in January for the remainder of the season, appearing in 26 regular season games and seven postseason games.
The Lakers roster now stands at 19.
Before tonight’s game against the Nuggets, Coach Jackson said that Ronny Turiaf will not play tonight as he is still not feeling well.
Turiaf will not be present at STAPLES Center tonight with Jackson revealing, “He’s going to be back home, recovering, hopefully getting ready for Friday.”
In his absence, Jackson said that D.J. Mbenga–recently diagnosed with bruised ribs–will likely see playing time tonight, with Chris Mihm another option at center.
After D.J. Mbenga was diagnosed with bruised ribs yesterday after taking a hard fall during practice, Coach Jackson said he was forced to limit his minutes during today’s workout session, but not before he got a good run in.
With Ronny Turiaf still feeling under the weather and noticeably lacking his usual energy, Jackson said he only allowed the forward to break a small sweat before taking him off the floor.
“We hope that he’ll improve,” said Jackson. “He improved from probably yesterday until today.”
After practice broke on Monday a group of eight Lakers held back to play a 4-on-4 game while the other players attended to the assembled media.
Center DJ Mbenga got caught up with some of the other participants and ended up on the floor with a look of agony on his face as teammates and team medical personnel gathered around.
From how DJ was holding his side it looks like something in the rib area, but nothing official has been released.
UPDATE: DJ had a CT scan and was diagnosed with bruised ribs. He is officially being listed as Day-to-Day.
The Lakers rebounded from consecutive losses to lowly Charlotte and Memphis by defeating the Wizards 126-120 in an overtime thriller. After trailing 120-117, Derek Fisher nailed a clutch two from just inside the arc to bring the Lakers to within one of Washington. After two free throws by Kobe reclaimed the lead 121-120, the purple and gold never looked back.
“I thought that a lot of players contributed tonight to the victory,” said Jackson. “Radmanovic (18 points) and Sasha (20 points) in the first half with the three point shooting obviously was pretty traumatic. D.J. (6 points, 3 rebounds) gave us a good game off the bench at center. Luke played a terrific game tonight.”
Despite the win, the Lakers continued their disturbing trend of allowing big quarters to inferior teams, giving up 39 in the third to Washington.
“They played with fury there in the third quarter,” said Jackson. “Again, we gave up over 35 points which is a lot…39 in that third quarter. Stevenson with five threes was a pretty remarkable performance.” Jackson also praised the 27 point performance of Wizards guard Nick Young.
The Lakers shellacked the Clippers 119-82, outscoring them by 29 points in the second half to bust open what was only an eight point halftime lead. Seven Lakers scored in double figures, led by Derek Fisher’s 17 (7-11 shooting) after struggling to find his shot for parts of the past two weeks. As a team, the Lakers held the Clippers to an abysmal 38% shooting from the floor while outrebounding them by a healthy 10 boards.
“Every body getting the chance to play kind of gives the team a good feel about playing basketball,” said Jackson.
Kobe Bryant added 16 points and Lamar Odom continued his outstanding overall play, scoring 15 points to go along with eight rebounds and four steals. In his return to the starting lineup, Vladimir Radmanovic chipped in 10 points, including two three point makes.
“It felt good to get back on track,” said Bryant. “During the season you’ll have games like we’ve had in the past, particularly when you don’t have that many practices, you can’t get that rhythm that you are used to playing with. It kind of deteriorates some what so we got a good practice under our belt, came out and executed well.”
Here’s a quick look at every Lakers’ health status as the team heads to Detroit to start the longest road trip in team history.
In alphabetical order…
Trevor Ariza
Still recovering from fracturing the fourth metatarsal in his right foot after landing on teammate Derek Fisher’s foot in practice on January 20th. Expected to miss another 6-7 more weeks. Did not travel with the team.
Kwame Brown
As healthy as he’s going to be during the course of an 82-game season.
Kobe Bryant
As healthy as he’s going to be during the course of an 82-game season.
Andrew Bynum
Still recovering from a subluxation of the patella and a bone bruise of his left knee that he suffered in the January 13th game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Expected to miss approximately 6 more weeks. Did not travel with the team.
Before today’s showdown against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Coach Phil Jackson finally had some good news to share on the injury front; injured forward Vladimir Radmanovic will suit up for today’s game. Jackson also said that Chris Mihm will travel with the team on their upcoming nine game road trip and will hopefully return to the floor sometime around the middle of that stretch.
Jackson said that the team has yet to sit down and decide whether or not they will renew replacement center DJ Mbenga’s 10 day contract that expires after this Tuesday’s game against the Knicks, but did praise Mbenga for his attentiveness in the limited time he’s been with the Lakers.
Looking ahead to today’s game and the always exciting battle between LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, Jackson said that no matter how many years a player has been in the league, it’s still difficult at times to resist the urge to go mano-a-mano against certain players. However, Jackson said that while Kobe is still baited at times, his individual play comes with more of a team mindset now.
The Lakers shot over 56% and yet came up short tonight. The offsetting negatives were turnovers and particularly points off turnovers at 20 for the Mavs and offensive rebounds, of which the Mavs got 13. The Mavs also penetrated often in the 3rd quarter, particularly Devin Harris, who got by Jordan and Fisher time and again early in the game, though less so in the 4th quarter.
Those two elements created a third quarter in which the Mavs scored 35 points and outscored the Lakers by 16. Even when the Lakers turned it around with the unit of Kobe, Jordan, Sasha, Ronny and DJ, and particularly the strong play of Jordan, the deficit was too much to overcome in the 4th quarter.
The game also had continuing struggles for Lamar and Luke, who each had 4 points, Otherwise, statistically, the Lakers were relatively strong across the board, leading the Mavs in most categories.
Going forward the team will have to figure out how to address third quarter energy, which was also a key in the San Antonio loss and also getting all their healthy players firing on all cylinders.
FROM LAKERS.com