Lakers point guard D'Angelo Russell, his team's second-leading scorer (16.1 ppg), sat out Tuesday's last-second win over the Thunder and will miss Wednesday's game against the Warriors, too, because of a sore left knee, the team announced.
Coach Luke Walton characterized the soreness Russell has been dealing with as "day-to-day."
“Obviously, the more time you miss, the more serious it seems to be, but I’m not going to try to guess on that,” Walton told reporters before Tuesday night’s game (via the Los Angeles Times). “When the training staff and doctors and D’Angelo let us know he’s good to go, he’ll be back in there. Until they give us more information or we know more for certain, it’s day to day."
The second overall pick in the 2015 draft persuaded the coaching and training staffs to let him play Sunday against the Bulls, but he wasn't himself, according to the Times, appearing tentative while spending most of his time on the perimeter instead of penetrating to the basket in a 118-110 loss.
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Russell admitted afterward he was cautious because of the knee.
“If he can’t go out and play without any restrictions, it’s not really worth having him out there right now,” Walton said. “He’s too young and his future is too bright to risk that, but if he can get out there and play the way we know he can, we want him on the court.”
Eleven-year veteran Jose Calderon started for Russell against OKC so Walton could keep intact a second unit that ranks first in the NBA with an average of 51.6 points a game. Calderon has 12 points, six rebounds and four assists in 23 minutes in the victory.
The Lakers (8-7) play at Golden State (12-2) at 10:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.
