LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles Lakers opted to keep rookie point guard Lonzo Ball out of Sunday’s pre-season game against the Sacramento Kings, letting him rest his sprained left ankle.
Ball was to miss his second straight game since he was hurt on Monday when he came down on Denver Nuggets point guard Emmanuel Mudiay’s foot near the end of the first half of a pre-season contest.
Lakers coach Luke Walton said Ball, the second overall selection in the draft in June, had trouble with lateral movement.
There was some suggestion Ball could miss the rest of the pre-season.
“I hope not, but yeah, that’s a possibility,” Walton said. “It is different with every player. He is new to the team, so we’ve got to see how long these types of injuries take him to come back from.
“We’d like to have him back, but again, we are not going to rush him back just to try to get him out there.”
The Lakers open the regular season on October 19 against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Meanwhile, Connie Hawkins, a Basketball Hall of Fame forward who starred for the Harlem Globetrotters as well as the NBA Phoenix Suns, has died aged 75, the Suns announced on Saturday.
“The Hawk” launched his career on the famed New York outdoor courts of Rucker Park and led two unbeaten high school teams to titles.
Hawkins was linked to a college basketball gambling scandal in 1961 but was never arrested or indicted. Despite that, he was denied a place at top US college teams or in the NBA.
He spent three years with the Globetrotters and four more with minor-league basketball clubs before reaching a settlement with the NBA in 1969 that saw him join the expansion Suns.
His flamboyant style of play, acrobatic leaps and slam dunks matching artistry and flair with skill and athleticism, made him a pioneer of the style used by such players as Michael Jordan that popularized the sport worldwide.