In a bit of good news and bad news, the Lakers remain undermanned in the final two games of their road trip, but may be moving closer to full health overall.
After it was reported that LeBron James returned to Los Angeles earlier in the week, head coach JJ Redick noted that the rest of the injured Lakers — Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes and even Maxi Kleber — all went back to SoCal as well.
Hachimura was set to be re-evaluated again at the end of the week, so a return to LA would likely allow that to happen. He initially suffered his patellar tendinopathy injury against the Clippers and is closing in on two weeks out.
Hayes’ injury surfaced during the team’s road trip as he will ultimately miss at least all four games away from LA. Redick stated prior to the Celtics game that it was not an injury expected to be long term.
JJ Redick said Jaxson Hayes’ knee injury isn’t expected to be serious.
“Hopefully he’ll be back soon,” Redick said.
Redick said he won’t share the starting lineup yet.
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) March 9, 2025
With Kleber, returning to Los Angeles probably doesn’t signal much in terms of a return. When he was traded to the Lakers, he said he would be re-evaluated in eight weeks. That was only just over five weeks ago, so it’s unlikely he’s nearing a return.
The most likely reason for all of this is that the Lakers are about to have a pretty hectic flight schedule. The team will depart Milwaukee on Thursday night, arrive in Denver early Friday morning, play the Nuggets and then fly to LA on Friday night.
Instead of having players dealing with injuries take those trips, it likely made more sense to send them back to LA directly and separately, allowing them to rehab at the facility and, at least for Hachimura and Hayes, potentially return early next week.
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