The Lakers played arguably their best game of the season on Wednesday in a 126-117 win over the Blazers in L.A., and that unsurprisingly coincided with LeBron James’ best game since joining the team.
James had 44 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists, passing Wilt Chamberlain for fifth on the all-time scoring list in the process, and dominated in a way he has yet to in Los Angeles. However, while it was a spectacular performance and a big win for the Lakers, they did get some unfortunate news afterwards.
Rajon Rondo, who played 16 minutes and had three assists, two steals, and two rebounds (and 0 points), reportedly broke his hand during the fourth quarter and will be out for a few weeks.
Rajon Rondo broke his hand, Luke Walton says. He’ll be out a few weeks.
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) November 15, 2018
Walton says he’s been told Rondo broke his hand on an attempted steal in the fourth quarter. He’ll be out a few weeks at least.
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) November 15, 2018
While it wasn’t specified, based on accounts of Rondo in the locker room the injury is to his right hand.
https://twitter.com/jovanbuha/status/1062956078416064512
This will obviously shrink the Lakers’ backcourt rotation, but they have some experience playing without Rondo since he missed four games earlier this season due to a suspension for his fight with Chris Paul. Rondo hasn’t been especially good for the Lakers this season, but without him they’ll have to rely on Lonzo Ball to play more minutes (which might be a positive) and others like Josh Hart to take over more of the ball-handling role.
The nice thing about having LeBron James is, in minutes where he’s out there and Ball isn’t, he can take over ball-handling responsibilities even more than he already does as a point-forward to help balance the creative load.
