Lakers Injury Woes Will Temper Post-Season Bid

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

In the first month of the season, the Los Angeles Lakers are not living up to their expectations, and the injury woes are the main culprit.

On Wednesday, the Lakers were served a big blow, learning those injury concerns will continue with Pau Gasol’s ailing knee tendinitis and Steve Blake’s abdominal strain.

According to Dave McMenamin from ESPN Los Angeles, D’Antoni was quoted with the following:

“We got to get (Gasol) healthy. Whatever it takes — one game, two games, 10 games — I don’t know. It’s day to day but he’s got to be healthy. It wasn’t fair (to him). He’s trying to battle through some stuff and in this league, you just can’t do that.”

Gasol’s struggles with head coach Mike D’Antoni’s offense has been well documented. D’Antoni’s up-tempo offense has put the slow-striding Gasol out of the mix and he’s expressed his angst. And fighting through knee tendinitis on the court isn’t going to make matters any better.

So far this season, he’s averaging a lowly (for his standards) 12.6 points, 8.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.2 blocks and has been benched down the stretch in close-game situations.

Meanwhile, it doesn’t seem like Blake’s abdominal strain is getting any better.

According to the Lakers’ official Twitter account, the 32-year-old point guard will undergo surgery to repair the torn abdominal muscle and will miss between six to eight weeks.

The news follows reports that Blake would miss at least two weeks with an MRI exam showing his abdominal strain just a week previous to the new found results.

Blake has already been filling in for superstar Steve Nash for the first month of the season, who’s dealing with is own left ankle injury. Blake has already missed the last ten games of the season and even before that, he’s been a pedestrian fill-in for Nash, shooting just 34 percent from the floor. He is average a shade over 5 points and 3 assists per game.

Though he’s hasn’t been the Steve Blake of old, it isn’t a good sign to see him one of the Lakers’ key contributors off the bench to miss a substantial amount of time. Now, the Lakers are left with their third string guard Darius Morris and their losses are piling up. In fact, since Blake’s injury, the Lakers are a meager 5-5 and can’t seem to right the ship.

If they have to play without Gasol too, that ship will continue to sink and Los Angeles’ playoff hopes could hit a huge snag.