The Los Angeles Lakers were already down big by 15+ points in the 4th quarter versus the Houston Rockets and just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, rookie forward Julius Randle suffered a terrible injury on an attempt to score in a drive to the paint . TNT reported that he broke his leg as seen by this tweet by SportsCenter.
UPDATE: Lakers rookie Julius Randle suffers broken leg in NBA debut. (via @NBAonTNT)
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 29, 2014
Randle who had his NBA debut last night, only played 14 minutes, was 1 for 3 from the field accounting for his only two points in the night.
The Rockets were on cruise control for most of the game, James Harden led the scoring with 32 points and added 6 assists. Ex-Laker Dwight Howard got booed almost all night, but had a decent game himself earning a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Howard was also involved in a little altercation with Kobe Bryant when Dwight got a defensive rebound and swung his elbow that clipped Bryant on the chin. Kobe later called Howard “soft” as you could easily read his lips.
https://twitter.com/OnlyTheNBA/status/527329513664155648
Bryant led Lakers scorers with 19 points and although he did show some rust he took too much of the load for the Lakers offense. For a player who had not played since December of last year, Kobe showed some encouraging signs.
The same problems as last season are starting to creep up on the Lakers already in their first game of the season. The injuries are starting to stack up again with Steve Nash, Nick Young, Ryan Kelly, and now Julius Randle currently out.
These injuries are now leading to a lack of depth for the Lakers, which was also a problem last season.
Adding to the bad news is also the fact that at times when Bryant was on the bench, the Lakers really struggled to score. Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer carried the team for some minutes during the 3rd quarter when the Lakers cut their deficit to single digits, but that did not last long. Boozer had 17 points with 7 rebounds, while Lin had 7 points and 6 assists.
Tough times seem to come down the road for the Lakers, but for now they will have to wait and see how coach Byron Scott can find a winning combination with the players he has available.
Photo Credit: Stephen Dunn/NBAE/Getty Images
Comments are closed.