Lakers News: What Steve Nash's Injury Means for Immediate Future
Injuries were a problem for the Los Angeles Lakers a year ago, and the same issue seems to have come up this season as well. In all likelihood, they will have to play without Steve Nash for some time.
The veteran point guard exited Sunday's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves after only 13 minutes and did not play in the second half. He had already missed a couple of games this year with back issues, although he kept trying to tough it out and get himself onto the court.
Unfortunately, it seems like this latest problem will keep Nash out for much longer.
Bleacher Report's Kevin Ding provided the latest on the situation:
"“It wasn’t bad enough against Houston not to play,” Nash said. The same sort of nerve problem from his back to his right hamstring and hip derailed the latter half of last season and left him pretty much stuck in neutral during the offseason.
Nash will learn more Monday after being examined by Robert Watkins, the doctor who repaired Howard’s herniated disk. It’s not nearly the first time Nash will be seeing the back specialist during his Lakers career. But it’s the first time the Lakers’ PR department has announced it, indicating the more formally serious nature of this situation.
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Ding also notes that the player himself is concerned about the injury:
J.A. Adande of ESPN might have summed it up best:
With so much uncertainty surrounding a player who has had chronic back problems, you can assume he will try to stay off the court until he knows he is 100 percent healthy.
As a result, the Lakers will have to replace him in what is all of a sudden a weak starting lineup.
The good news is the replacement point guard has been in the lineup all year long. Steve Blake has been starting games for the team as a shooting guard, but he has proven in the past two games that he is capable of handling the lead role.
After sinking the game-winning shot against the Houston Rockets on Thursday, Blake had 32 points and 16 assists in his next two starts combined while mostly running the point. Of course, he is still continuing his great outside shooting, going 7-of-12 in those contests.
Although Blake might not have the quickness or athleticism of some of the top point guards in the NBA, he is more than capable of handling the duties for the Lakers.
The problem is more that the team has little around him to help out. Jodie Meeks will likely slide into the 2-guard position and has proven to be a solid scorer. Unfortunately, his 12.8 points per game currently leads the team.
Head coach Mike D'Antoni has built the team he wants with plenty of shooters. Besides Meeks, players like Nick Young, Wesley Johnson and others have been lighting it up from outside.
In fact, the Lakers have hit an impressive 39.5 percent from behind the arc this year while taking the second-most three-point attempts per game in the NBA. Unfortunately, this is still not producing enough scoring to win games.
This means that it all must come back to the only All-Star still healthy: Pau Gasol. The forward had the worst year of his career last season, and things are even worse this time around. He is currently averaging only 11.9 points per game while making only 36 percent of his shots.
Obviously, he is still taking more jump shots than he would like, but he needs to start making these attempts. Otherwise, the team will fall short on a daily basis.
The truth is that if things stay the way they are, the Lakers will lose a lot of games. To make matters worse, Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times reports that Kobe Bryant is still at least a few more weeks away.
It does not make sense for Los Angeles to acquire any backcourt talent with the shooting guard eventually planning a return. However, the squad desperately needs someone to step up on the offensive end.
Otherwise, the Lakers could end up being too far back in the standings for Bryant's return to even matter.
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