Lonzo Ball has missed 15 games for the Lakers while recovering from a sprained left MCL and in that time L.A. has hit its stride to the tune of an 8-7 record without their rookie point guard, while also shaking up their roster with the Isaiah Thomas trade.
Thomas’ addition won’t have any effect on Ball’s status as the Lakers’ starting point guard moving forward, according to Luke Walton and Magic Johnson, but it will be very interesting to see how the two play together. The question has been when Ball will make his return and while most have anticipated it would come shortly after the All-Star break, we hadn’t gotten any official confirmation.
That is until Thursday when news of Lonzo’s impending return on Friday night against the Mavericks hit Twitter, not by way of the Lakers or beat reporters, but from the Big Baller Brand account.
https://twitter.com/bigballerbrand/status/966765067441078272
Being the brand owned and operated by the Ball family, one would assume this news to be correct, but one also has to wonder if the Lakers are keen on Ball breaking his own injury return news. Whether Ball will be inserted immediately back into the starting lineup or if they’ll bring him along slowly will remain to be seen and we will likely get answers to that shortly from Walton the next time he speaks to the media, but for now we’ll have to go off the word of BBB and look forward to the No. 2 overall pick returning to the court on Friday.
The Lakers’ official update on Ball is that he practiced Thursday and his official status for the game against the Mavs will be announced tomorrow.
Lonzo Ball practiced in full today. His status for Friday’s game will be determined tomorrow.
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 22, 2018
Walton said that Lonzo wants to play tomorrow, but the decision ultimately goes to the training staff.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) February 22, 2018
