The Los Angeles Lakers announced that forward Rui Hachimura was ruled out of the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night with a left knee strain.
Hachimura appeared to hurt the knee on a fastbreak early in the third quarter. He was immediately forced to head back to the locker room and then was eventually ruled out for the night.
In 18 minutes of action before suffering the injury, Hachimura scored five points on 2-of-6 shooting to go along with three rebounds and two assists. He has been playing extremely well lately, so the hope is that it’s not a significant injury that will force him to miss extended time.
The Lakers are back in action on Friday night as they host the L.A. Clippers in the second game of a back-to-back. Even if Hachimura avoided a significant injury. it’s reasonable to expect him to miss Friday’s game given the short turnaround. The Lakers will release an injury report the morning of the game though that will reveal his status.
If Hachimura is forced to miss time, Dorian Finney-Smith would likely enter the Lakers’ starting lineup. Off the bench, guys like Dalton Knecht, Jordan Goodwin and maybe even Cam Reddish would be asked to pick up the slack.
JJ Redick praises Rui Hachimura for performance against Nuggets
One of Rui Hachimura’s best games of the season came last weekend against the Denver Nuggets as he was getting it done on both ends of the floor. He played quality defense on Nikola Jokic, earning praise from Lakers head coach JJ Redick after the win.
“[Jokic] leads the NBA in touches,” Redick said following L.A.’s 123-100 win. “He’s gonna touch the ball. We tried to limit his touches as much as possible. I thought Rui was outstanding. He was a warrior tonight. A warrior. And all the guys that had primary turns on [Jokic], LeBron at one point, Vando for sure setting the tone with his physicality, Doe as well. And anytime a small got switched on, we just stuck with what we were trying to do and had to live with some things. But that’s what we were willing to live with.”
Hachimura has been effectively guarding centers a lot lately, playing a big part in the Lakers having the best defense in the NBA since January.
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