The Los Angeles Lakers received some brutal injury-related news on Wednesday afternoon, when the team announced that Isaiah Thomas has to get surgery to try and remedy his well-documented hip issues. Not all the injury news on the day was bad, though, as it was revealed that second-year wing Brandon Ingram will make his return to the rotation.
Ingram has not played since March 1 due to a groin injury. When he suffered the ailment, he was projected to miss at least one week, but the groin strain has kept him out for Los Angeles’ last 12 games. The Lakers have gone 5-7 in that stretch.
On Wednesday, Luke Walton announced that Ingram’s time on the sidelines has come to an end, and that he will take the floor for Los Angeles’ game against Dallas.
https://twitter.com/shahanLA/status/979056482258862080
Unsurprisingly, the Lakers want to try and take things slow with Ingram, so he’ll be on a minutes restriction against the Mavericks.
Brandon Ingram will play on a minutes restriction tonight.
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) March 28, 2018
Ingram has shown flashes of the tantalizing scoring ability that made him the No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft this season, as he’s averaging a team-high 16.2 points per game on 46.9 percent shooting from the field and 38 percent shooting from three year. He is one of the faces of the Lakers’ youth movement, and assuming he stays healthy, will have nine more games this season to get buckets and show why the future is so bright in Los Angeles.
