The Los Angeles Lakers are back home after a six-game road trip that got fans feeling hopeful again.
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The Los Angeles Lakers are back home after a six-game road trip that got fans feeling hopeful again. But their homecoming isn’t exactly a cakewalk. They’re set to take on the defending champs, the Denver Nuggets, on Thursday. The Lakers wrapped up their road trip with a solid 4-2 record, clinching the last three games.
The NBA trade deadline’s looming large on Thursday, and there’s buzz that the resurgent D’Angelo Russell might be on the trading block. It’s gonna be quite a day for the Lakers because they’re not just playing ball. They’re also gearing up to unveil a statue of Kobe Bryant in the plaza outside Crypto.com Arena.
And speaking of the Lakers, they got a massive boost on February 1st when they took down the Boston Celtics 114-105, even with LeBron James nursing an ankle injury and Anthony Davis dealing with a hip issue.
For the Lakers, Reddish (ankle injury), Vanderbilt (foot injury), and Vincent (knee injury) will not be playing the game. Besides, Davis (achilles tendon injury) and James (ankle injury) could also miss the game. As for the Nuggets, Cancar will sit this one out due to a knee injury. Also, Caldwell-Pope could also miss the game due to a hamstring injury.
The Lakers’ rollercoaster ride this season has left everyone wondering just how far they can go. They kicked things off with a so-so 3-5 record, then turned it around with six wins out of seven and even snagged the inaugural NBA in-season tournament title.
But they hit a rough patch with a 3-10 slump, and there were rumors flying about tension between players and head coach Darvin Ham. Fast forward to now, and the Lakers are sitting at 8-4 since January 15, thanks in no small part to Russell. He’s becoming more and more valuable to both the Lakers and any teams looking to make a trade.
It looks like the Nuggets might have had a bit of a championship hangover at the start, going 14-9 early on. But they’ve really picked up steam since December 11th, going 21-7 overall and 7-2 since January 19th.
Now, they’re heading to Los Angeles fresh off back-to-back wins at home against the Portland Trail Blazers. Nikola Jokic was on fire, averaging 28 points and 15 rebounds, and he even snagged a season-best 22 rebounds in one of those games last Friday.
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