LOS ANGELES — Lakers rookie Jalen Hood-Schifino was made available and part of the team’s active roster for the first time in Sunday’s home game against the Houston Rockets.
Hood-Schifino had been sidelined because of a right patella contusion he suffered during the Lakers’ Oct. 13 preseason loss to the Golden State Warriors.
The No. 17 pick in June’s NBA draft wasn’t in the team’s rotation, with D’Angelo Russell, Taurean Prince, Cam Reddish, LeBron James and Anthony Davis starting for the fourth consecutive game and fifth time in six games.
Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Christian Wood and Jaxson Hayes filled out the rest of the rotation off the bench.
James (left calf contusion) and Davis (left adductor/hip spasm) were once again available after being listed on the pregame injury report.
James’ calf area was being tended to by a trainer on the bench during the second half but he returned to the game shortly after.
“Once the season starts, no one is really 100% healthy,” coach Darvin Ham said. “Everyone deals with something – be it minor or major. Another thing where he’s getting things handled and treated every day. Sticking to his routine. If we need to pay a little bit more attention to a particular area, then we’ll do that.”
Davis said after Friday’s road win over the Portland Trail Blazers that his hip is “still bothering” him but assured that he’s “all right”.
“I mean, the only thing we can do is, obviously, under the guise of our medical staff, just making sure our performance team is treating him and doing everything that they can possibly do,” Ham said. “The due diligence of it all. And first and foremost, as I always say, as we wholeheartedly believe in, just knowing 100% that we’re not putting him in a position to do further damage or expose themselves to a more serious injury.
“And we checked those boxes. Now it’s just a matter of tolerance. The more we can get it treated. We have time, great. But if not, a lot of it is on the fly. But again, those guys, both he and Bron, they push through a lot of different ailments. And with AD specifically, just constantly checking in with him and constantly working on him during timeouts, during halftime, in between quarters. Just helping him manage it. And eventually, that area will restrengthen itself and, along with the work that’s being put in on it, he’ll continue to push through.”
By assisting Reddish on a layup with 10:58 in the second quarter, James reached the 10,500 regular-season assist-plateau – a mark only achieved by three other players in league history.
The assist to Reddish was James’ fifth of the game.
James, John Stockton (15,806), Jason Kidd (12,091) and Chris Paul (11,604) are the only players in NBA history to record at least 10,500 assists in the regular season.
James, the league’s all-time leading scorer, is the only player among those four to score at least 22,000 regular-season points, entering Sunday with 38,958.
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