Lance Stephenson out vs. Clippers Tyson Chandler questionable new

Lance Stephenson out vs. Clippers Tyson Chandler questionable

Tyson Chandler - Los Angeles Lakers 

The Los Angeles Lakers remain ravaged by injuries. Lonzo Ball is the most prominent injured player on the roster, but he is far from the only one. The Lakers announced on Monday that Lance Stephenson will miss tonight's game against the Los Angeles Clippers with the toe sprain that he suffered last week. In addition, Tyson Chandler is questionable with neck stiffness, leaving the Lakers with a shorter rotation in what amounts to an elimination game against the team that they need to leap in order to reach the postseason.

Chandler had largely been out of the rotation recently due to a combination of injuries, ineffectiveness and the overall downsizing of the lineup. He gave the Lakers five minutes on Saturday against the Phoenix Suns, but they were outscored by six points in that span. Age has caught up to Chandler as the season has progressed. The Lakers couldn't expect much out of him in this game anyway.

Stephenson is a more complicated case. While he has played poorly lately, the variance he brings to the court actually has some utility in the middle of a losing streak. Stephenson can shoot the Lakers out of games, but it's not as if anyone else is playing all that well at the moment. A good stretch from him could have ignited a run as it has on several occasions earlier this season. Without him, the Lakers are left to the same guards they've been running into the ground lately.

Rajon Rondo played 40 minutes on Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope played the final 17 minutes of that game. Both of their minutes were rolled back against the Phoenix Suns, but the result stayed the same. Luke Walton appears to be losing trust in Reggie Bullock, which led to Josh Hart playing 26 minutes despite the tendinitis that has limited him lately. That was the most playing time he has logged since January, and if he is getting healthy enough to play that many minutes moving forward, it would be a great sign for the Lakers down the stretch.

But at present, the Lakers are faced with the reality that most of their team is dealing with some injury or another. For Stephenson, it's his toe. For Chandler, it's his neck. For Ball, it's his ankle. For Hart, it's his knee. LeBron James probably isn't back to 100 percent either. Mike Muscala arrived in less than mint condition. Winning NBA games is hard enough at 100 percent. Beating the teams left on their schedule with one hand tied behind their back is going to be virtually impossible. The Lakers are running out of time to get healthy if they want to have any chance at making the playoffs.

Report: Lakers pause contract talks with Carmelo Anthony

It appears as though the one franchise that the rest of the basketball world thought would be the ideal landing spot for Carmelo Anthony has decided to go in another direction.

According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Lakers have paused talked with Anthony and his representation on a deal that would have brought the former All-Star to Los Angeles for the remainder of the 2018-19 campaign after the Purple and Gold stumbled this past week, losing four of their last five games and falling further out of the playoff picture in the Western Conference.

The Los Angeles Lakers and free agent Carmelo Anthony are pausing talks on a possible contract agreement unless the franchise makes a turn back toward pursuit of Western Conference playoffs contention, league sources told ESPN.

The Lakers had been leaning toward signing Anthony for the rest of the season -- until losses in four of the past five games left the organization and Anthony's camp wondering if it made sense to bring the veteran into an unsettled environment with suddenly so little chance of making the playoffs, league sources said.

While Anthony joining the Lakers may have seemed like a foregone conclusion to some after he was bought out by the Chicago Bulls following the trade they made with the Houston Rockets to acquire his rights, this decision makes it rather clear that both the franchise and Anthony's camp believe that he will not be capable of helping the team get back into this race and ultimately qualify for a spot in the postseason.

In 10 appearances for the Rockets this season, two of which featured him as part of the team's starting lineup, Anthony owned averages of 13.4 points to go along with 5.4 rebounds in 29.4 minutes per game for Houston before the team elected to part ways with the former All-Star.

Over the course of his career, Anthony has averaged 24.0 points to go along with 6.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.



Source:  https://247sports.com/nba/los-angeles-lakers/Article/Lance-Stephenson-out-Clippers-Lakers-Tyson-Chandler-questionable-129714095/